State's Attorney

Tom Cardigan (John Barrymore) was a smooth, sermonizing, Clarence Darrow type of defense attorney. Like any wealthy defense attorney, he had rich guilty clients. In Cardigan's case, his main financier was Vanny Powers (William 'Stage' Boyd). Cardigan used Powers to finance his lifestyle and his own mouth to rise to fame. Cardigan was so good that he was wanted for the job as state's attorney and then maybe even governor.

After Cardigan jumped to the other side of the attorney aisle he tried to distance himself from Powers. The drumbeat of his governorship was growing and a guy like Powers would be bad for his campaign. He also needed to make a big splash with a big conviction. For that he tried Nora Dean (Mary Duncan) for murdering her husband.

Opposed to his beating up on Nora on the witness stand was Cardigan's girlfriend June (Helen Twelvetrees). Cardigan met June while defending her from a prostitution charge (though they never said prostitution), so June knew what it was like to be in the defense chair.

In favor of his attempts to hang Nora was a high society woman named Lillian (Jill Esmond). A relationship with her and her father were just what Cardigan would need to make it to the governor's mansion.

If anything this movie highlighted how a brilliant lawyer can get a conviction or an acquittal depending on what team he/she is playing for. Cardigan was that gifted at swaying juries and rattling witnesses.

I typically love courtroom dramas. This one was just OK. There wasn't much courtroom to it, just mostly the social climb of Cardigan and the moves he made along the way. Like anyone hopping into politics there are compromises to be made and images to protect. Sometimes, to protect one's own image a person has to ruin someone else. Cardigan had to make that choice as well.

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