The Defense Rests (1934)
1h 10m | PG-13
A sleazy lawyer's female assistant sets out to end his cheating ways.
Director: Lambert Hillyer
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Genre: Drama, Crime
Video: 720p
Cast
Jack Holt
as Matthew Mitchell
Jean Arthur
as Joan Hayes
Nat Pendleton
as Rocky
Arthur Hohl
as James Randolph
Raymond Walburn
as Austin
Harold Huber
as Castro
Reviews
"Joan Hayes" (Jean Arthur) is employed by hotshot criminal lawyer "Mitchell" (Jack Holt) just as he heads to court for what we are sure will be his 38th straight victory. Following a kidnapping, though, "Mrs Evans" (Sarah Padden) comes to visit and as her boss is busy, she is seen by the new and keen "Joan" who begins to piece two and two together and conclude that her butter-wouldn't-melt employer is maybe not quite the shining light he purports to be. Armed with some damning evidence, she confronts him - but events elsewhere overtake their stand-off and soon the fate of a man facing the chair is front and centre of the story. That story is a bit more substantial than many of these standard afternoon features with a rather beefier part for Arthur and a decent chemistry between the two as things get messy and dangerous. Add a couple of mob heavies and maybe just a hint of integrity and this makes for quite an enjoyable seventy minutes of crime-noir.