Witness for the Prosecution (1957), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), Fracture (2007), The Last Wave (1978), Goldtown Ghost Riders (1953), The Unknown Man (1951) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Defendant movies.
Storyline: Britain, 1953. Upon his return to work following a heart attack, barrister takes on a murder case,. The case is defending American war vet Leonard Vole, a poor, out of work, struggling inventor who's accused of murdering his middle-aged lonely and wealthy acquaintance, Emily French. The evidence is circumstantial but points to Leonard as the murderer, butr the csse has constant revelations.
Plot Keywords: lawyer, wife, defendant, prosecutor, nurse, witness, gripping ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Small-town Alabama, 1932. Atticus Finch (played by Gregory Peck) is a lawyer and a widower. He has two young children, Jem and Scout. Atticus Finch is currently defending Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. Meanwhile, Jem and Scout are intrigued by their neighbours, the Radleys, and the mysterious, seldom-seen Boo Radley in particular.
Plot Keywords: young girl, young boy, lawyer, neighbor, defendant, drunk, emotional ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: It has been three years since the most important Nazi leaders had already been tried. This trial is about 4 judges who used their offices to conduct Nazi sterilization and cleansing policies. Retired American judge, Dan Haywood has a daunting task ahead of him. The Cold War is heating up and no one wants any more trials as Germany, and Allied governments, want to forget the past. But is that the right thing to do is the question that the tribunal must decide.—Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>
Plot Keywords: judge, defendant, lawyer, military officer, nazi, widow, dark ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Lieutenant Tom Cantrell is sent to defend Sergeant Braxton Rutledge, a black cavalry soldier, on a charge of rape and murder. The story begins in a courtroom and it is told through flashbacks. This is a story of how a black soldier in the face of danger from the Indians can be so easily mistaken as a criminal.—Christopher D. Ryan <cryan@direct.ca>
Plot Keywords: defendant, prosecutor, judge, witness, wife, intense, uneasy ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Wealthy, brilliant, and meticulous Ted Crawford, a structural engineer in Los Angeles, shoots his wife Jennifer and entraps her lover, Lieutenant Robert "Rob" Nunally. He signs a confession. At the arraignment, he asserts his rights to represent himself and asks the court to move immediately to trial. The prosecutor is Willy Beachum, a hotshot who's soon to join a fancy civil-law firm, told by everyone it's an open and shut case. Crawford sees Beachum's weakness, the hairline fracture of his character: Willy's a winner. The engineer sets in motion a clockwork crime with all of the objects moving in ways he predicts.
Plot Keywords: lawyer, engineer, judge, murderer, boss, defendant, suspenseful ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: A Sydney lawyer has more to worry about than higher-than-average rainfall when he is called upon to defend five Aboriginals in court. Determined to break their silence and discover the truth behind the hidden society he suspects lives in his city, the Lawyer is drawn further, and more intimately, into a prophesy that threatens a new Armageddon, wherein all the continent shall drown.—David Carroll <davidc@atom.ansto.gov.au>
Plot Keywords: lawyer, defendant, aborigine, medical examiner, judge, bleak, disturbing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: When Ed Wheeler shoots Jim Granby, Gene brings him in. But Wheeler says even if Granby dies he cannot he charged because he has already served 10 years for Granby's supposed murder. Then in flashback Wheeler relates how he and Granby founded Goldtown based on an exaggerated supply of gold and how when Granby blackmailed him, he thought he killed him and confessed to the murder.—Maurice VanAuken <mvanauken@a1access.net>
Plot Keywords: gene autry, sidekick, defendant, love interest, villain, henchman, rousing ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Prominent attorney Brad Mason takes on the defense of Rudi Walchek, a young hit-man hoodlum accused of murder. Convinced of the youthful thug's innocence, Mason get him acquitted. Later, he learns from the murder-victim's father that Walchek is a low-level member of a protection-racket gang and was undoubtedly guilty. Mason is anxious to get the gang-leader, but when he discovers it is the eminently respected head of the city's Crime Commission, he feels that a conviction in a court-of-law would be impossible. In a rage, he kills the man, but all evidence, including the murder weapon points to Walchek. When the latter is again brought to trial, Mason, although he senses a higher justice is at work, feels he must defend him with the best of his ability.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
Plot Keywords: defense attorney, wife, district attorney, defendant, murderer, shop owner, engaging ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. is a dramatic thriller set in the underbelly of the overburdened Los Angeles criminal court system. Denzel Washington stars as Roman Israel, a driven, idealistic defense attorney who, through a tumultuous series of events, finds himself in a crisis that leads to extreme action. Colin Farrell costars as the monied, cutthroat lawyer who recruits Roman to his firm.
Plot Keywords: lawyer, defendant, defense attorney, civil rights leader, victim, law partner, gripping ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: US Air Force veteran Ben Brown has been charged with the murder of aging Cole Clinton, a leading citizen of Durango County, New Mexico. Several months after the discovery of Clint's dead body, Ben was turned in to the authorities for a reward by his wife, Laura Mae Brown, who claims she witnessed the murder. Ben has signed two confessions to killing Clint, who picked up the Browns hitchhiking on the road on his way back home from an out-of-town cattle auction. In addition to the charge against Ben, Laura Mae is charged as a co-defendant, her trial to be separate from Ben's. Although the alleged murder did not happen in Durango County, the trial is held there where most of Clint's friends and family will definitely be in attendance, their goal to see Ben convicted and executed. Instead of District Attorney Paul Farish, Norris Bixby has been appointed special prosecutor to try the case. James Tucker, the presiding judge, appoints a surprised young widowed attorney named David Mitchell, to represent Ben. David's surprise is because he is not currently a trial lawyer, his recent work, especially since the death of his wife Lillian three years ago, being solely research, specifically writing briefs. David learns that his appointment was partly orchestrated by his mentor, respected invalid lawyer Art Harper, who wants to see Ben get a fair trial and get David out of his funk and back into trying cases. Even before working on the case, David sees it as an overall losing situation, he will not be able to get Ben off, and will get no business following this case for representing the popular Clint's killer. David doesn't even yet realize how much the cards are stacked against him and Ben as Bixby, an ambitious man, has managed to manipulate the evidence for the trial to be a slam dunk in his favor to advance his political aspirations. As such, David believes the trial will be a lynching. In meeting Laura Mae for the first time, David finds that she is a young woman who uses sex to her advantage and who cares nothing for Ben. Ben, on the other hand, seems only to care about Laura Mae and her welfare. As David comes closer to discovering the whole story which looks to be justifiable homicide under New Mexico law, he has to decide how To negotiate the problematic case. Standing by David's side throughout the proceedings is Art's daughter, Susan Harper, who has interests other than the case.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: lawyer, defendant, prosecutor, wife, mentor, judge, gripping ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: It was a typical morning in London when a powerful bomb exploded in the heart of the city. After the smoke cleared, sole surviving terrorist cell member Farroukh Erdogan (Denis Moschitto) was quickly taken into custody. As preparations for his trial begin, however, the government's plan to use classified evidence to prosecute the suspect leads the Attorney General (Jim Broadbent) to appoint Special Advocate Claudia Simmons-Howe (Hall) to the case. Claudia's unique position as a government-approved defense lawyer ensures that she can review the top-secret evidence, and advocate for full disclosure during the inevitable "closed" session portion of the trial. Once Claudia has reviewed the evidence, however, any communication with the defense team and the defendant himself is strictly forbidden. Later, When Erdogan's lawyer dies just before the trial begins, Claudia's driven ex-lover, attorney Martin Rose (Bana), takes his place. Realizing that their previous affair could jeopardize their...
Plot Keywords: lawyer, prosecutor, defendant, defense attorney, judge, ex-lover, gripping ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Adam Hayward (Robert Montgomery), a successful New York City defense lawyer, receives a cable that the British war buddy who saved his life at Anzio Beach is now in trouble with the law in England. Taking the advice of his secretary to go to England rather than wire money, Adam arrives in his friend's village to find him about to stand trial for the murder of the hired stable-hand, Lawrence. Hayward learns that a witness exists who can testify that his friend, Baxter, shot Lawrence in self-defense. But the other witness is a woman who fled the scene and will not want to expose herself by coming forward. Though Hayward suspects Alex, the youthful war-widow daughter-in-law of Colonel Summerfield (himself a widower) he soon discovers that the mystery woman is the young and impressionable Sandy Summerfield, whom he must see to it is brought to the witness stand. As he is leaving the village to catch his plane, Hayward stops at Summerfield Manor to say goodbye. As he does so, he manages to bring father and daughter together. The film closes as Adam and Alex, deep in conversation, walk off into the garden.—<swe5@midway.uchicago.edu>
Plot Keywords: lawyer, defendant, witness, friend, suspenseful, engaging, new york city ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: As a writer stymied by past success, writers block, substance abuse, relationship problems and a serious set of father issues, Elliott's cracked-out chronicle of a bizarre murder trial amounts to less than the sum of its parts. Not long into the 2007 trial of programmer Hans Reiser, accused of murdering his wife, the defendant's friend Sean Sturgeon obliquely confessed to several murders (though not the murder of Reiser's wife). Elliott, caught up in the film-ready twist and his tenuous connection to Sturgeon (they share a BDSM social circle), makes a record of the proceedings. The result is a scattered, self-indulgent romp through the mind of a depressive narcissist obsessed with his insecurities and childhood traumas.—Publisher's Weekly
Plot Keywords: writer, murder suspect, missing wife, friend, defendant, lawyer, dark ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Called up for jury duty, Richard Dice finds his first crush and only real, but unrequited love, on trial for murder. Richard desperately tries to prove Mollys innocence while untangling a complicated web of murder, blackmail and perjury, and still trying to win over the girl of his dreams.—Anonymous
Plot Keywords: college dropout, young man, old flame, defendant, police officer, mother, madcap ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Father Thomas O'Neil (Timothy Bottoms) is murdered, and a nun, Sister Margaret (Michele Greene), with whom he was rumoured to be having an affair, is arrested as the suspect in the scandalous crime. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), now a judge, is asked by his pal, Archbishop Stefan Corro, to look into it. With not only Mason but his secretary, Della Street (Barbara Hale), and his recent investigative partner, Paul Drake Jr. (William Katt), on the case, Margaret's name may be cleared.
Plot Keywords: judge, private investigator, secretary, defendant, archbishop, nun, engaging ...
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