Jack Holt

Jean Arthur

Nat Pendleton

Arthur Hohl

Raymond Walburn

Harold Huber

Robert Gleckler

Sarah Padden

Shirley Grey

Donald Meek

Raymond Hatton

Ward Bond

John Wray

Vivien Oakland

Selmer Jackson

J. Carrol Naish

Samuel S. Hinds

Arthur Belasco

Brooks Benedict

Charles Brinley

Don Brodie

Allan Cavan

Edward Cecil

Stephen Colt

Nick Copeland

Lynn Cowan

Kernan Cripps

Carrie Daumery

Milla Davenport

Joan Dix

Oliver Eckhardt

Ray Ellis

Bess Flowers

Mary Gordon

Galen Gough

Arnold Gray

Harrison Greene

Sam Hayes

A.R. Haysel

Arthur Hickman

Howard Hickman

Harry Hume

Charles King

Lydia Knott

Sam Lufkin

John Mack

Stanley Mack

Joe Smith Marba

Tony Martelli

Charles McAvoy

Frank Mills

Geneva Mitchell

Bert Moorhouse

Wilfrid North

Frank O'Connor

Hal Price

Bruce Randall

Bobbie Sheehan

Reginald Simpson

Bess Stafford

Jerome Storm

Hal Taggart

Billy West

Maston Williams

Eleanor Wood

Ernest F. Young

Lambert Hillyer

Jo Swerling

Dave Ragin

Drama

Crime

The Defense Rests

Columbia Pictures

United States of America

CinemaSerf

"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.

English