Top 250 Movies Like The Defenders

A scrupulously honest lawyer discovers that the client he's gotten off was really guilty.

Lucky Jackson arrives in town with his car literally in tow ready for the first Las Vegas Grand Prix - once he has the money to buy an engine. He gets the cash easily enough but mislays it when the pretty swimming pool manageress takes his mind off things. It seems he will lose both race and girl, problems made more difficult by rivalry from Elmo Mancini, fellow racer and womaniser.

A defense attorney works to get his teenage client acquitted of murdering his wealthy father.

A woman and her children escape severe poverty and abuse. She successfully betters her family's condition while living with the secret that she killed her abusive husband in order to protect her children from him.

When a Las Vegas bodyguard with lethal skills and a gambling problem gets in trouble with the mob, he has one last play… and it's all or nothing.

Jack Brookfield, a gambler with clairvoyant and hypnotic powers, is able to win at cards through his unique gift. But when he inadvertently hypnotizes young Clay Thorne, Thorne kills an enemy of Brookfield's while under a trance. No one believes Brookfield's protestations that Thorne is innocent of any murderous intent, so Brookfield teams up with retired lawyer Martin Prentice in hopes of saving the young man from the gallows.

When Leonard Vole is arrested for the sensational murder of a rich, middle-aged widow, the famous Sir Wilfrid Robarts agrees to appear on his behalf. Sir Wilfrid, recovering from a near-fatal heart attack, is supposed to be on a diet of bland, civil suits—but the lure of the criminal courts is too much for him, especially when the case is so difficult.

A young woman marries against her father's will, but the happy life she expected turns into a series of tragedies.

Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, unaware she's a special investigator for a streetcar company he's repeatedly victimized.

A man is put on trial for the murder of his best friend. A young attorney wants to become successful and decides to defend him. However, he is very inexperienced.

An American attorney on business in China, ends up wrongfully on trial for murder and his only key to innocence is a female defense lawyer from the country.

A juror on the inside and a woman on the outside manipulate a court trial involving a major gun manufacturer.

The powerful true story of Harvard-educated lawyer Bryan Stevenson, who goes to Alabama to defend the disenfranchised and wrongly condemned — including Walter McMillian, a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence. Bryan fights tirelessly for Walter with the system stacked against them.

When a famous doctor kills his adulterous wife, he is defended by his best friend, an attorney who suspects that his own wife is having an affair.

Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.

An ethical Baltimore defense lawyer disgusted with rampant legal corruption is forced to defend a judge he despises in a rape trial under the threat of being disbarred.

Esther Clay, wife of District Attorney John Clay and mother of attorney Bob Clay, is having an affair with Jack Keene. Scorned by him Esther kills Jack. Bob comes to her defense and confesses to the shooting. The father prosecutes the son who receives a life imprisonment sentence. Jack Keene's butler Druggett knows the truth and blackmails Esther. Bob's girlfriend Peg Harper summons John Clay to the scene...

Bob Naughton and Eddie Connolly are identical-twin brothers that were separated in infancy. Bob is raised by a rich lawyer, has all the advantages, but is a drunk with no moral character. Eddie is a pianist in a speak-easy but a man of high character. Bob commits a murder and Eddie is blamed and faces life in prison.

In Philadelphia, the psychologist Dr. Liz Manners is the host of the WLOR Talk Radio Show giving advices about relationships to her audience. When she suggests to her listener Sara Jane to leave her abusive and obsessive husband Kyle Lundstrom, Sara runs away home chased by Kyle and is hit by a car, immediately dying. The psychopath Kyle decides to use his money to destroy Dr. Manners' life, and assuming the fake identity of the investor James, he meets her husband Rob and poisons her marriage

A high-profile defense attorney determined to change her image takes on a pro bono case, which soon threatens both her and her family.

After he calls 911 to report his wife's accident, successful novelist and aspiring politician Michael Peterson (Williams) becomes the prime suspect in her alleged murder.

After his young son dies from the negligence at a hospital, Harry Fertig takes matters into his own hands and kills the doctors responsible. Slick lawyer Roy Bleakie, looking only to win a case and not caring of the matters involved, is assigned Fertig's case. Shocked to hear that his client wants to plead guilty, the case causes Bleakie to question his own morals by defending an honorable man.

Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo drive a red convertible across the Mojave desert to Las Vegas with a suitcase full of drugs to cover a motorcycle race. As their consumption of drugs increases at an alarming rate, the stoned duo trash their hotel room and fear legal repercussions. Duke begins to drive back to L.A., but after an odd run-in with a cop, he returns to Sin City and continues his wild drug binge.

The true story of the Mauritanian Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was held at the U.S military's Guantanamo Bay detention center without charges for over a decade and sought help from a defense attorney for his release.

A hugely successful DA goes into private practice after sending a man to the chair -- only to find out later he was innocent. Now the drunken attorney only seems to represent criminals and low lifes.

A lawyer conducts business from the back of his Lincoln town car while representing a high-profile client in Beverly Hills.

An arrogant, high-powered attorney takes on the case of a poor altar boy found running away from the scene of the grisly murder of the bishop who has taken him in. The case gets a lot more complex when the accused reveals that there may or may not have been a third person in the room.

Frank Galvin is a down-on-his-luck lawyer and reduced to drinking and ambulance chasing, when a former associate reminds him of his obligations in a medical malpractice suit by serving it to Galvin on a silver platter—all parties are willing to settle out of court. Blundering his way through the preliminaries, Galvin suddenly realizes that the case should actually go to court—to punish the guilty, to get a decent settlement for his clients... and to restore his standing as a lawyer.

When Rudy Baylor, a young attorney with no clients, goes to work for a seedy ambulance chaser, he wants to help the parents of a terminally ill boy in their suit against an insurance company. But to take on corporate America, Rudy and a scrappy paralegal must open their own law firm.

Dan Adams resigns his position as prosecutor on the district attorney's staff and sets out to clean up a gang of fake-accident racketeers. He gets a job with an insurance company, and assures the company president he will get the goods on the gang or die in the attempt. At the company offices, he meets Carol Carter and she, believing he is a shyster (possibly redundant) lawyer in the employ of the racketeers gives him as little help as possible. Dan visits his brother Eddie, who is mixed up with the gang and tries to make him break away. Eddie is belligerent but finally, because of the pressure brought by Dan and his wife Tonia, agrees to go straight. The gang, led by "Duke" Trotti, fears he will squeal and they kill him, plus they make his death look like an accident and plan to collect on it. Dan is closing in on the gang when Carol, who is now his assistant, comes up with some conclusive evidence, but "Duke" has plans to get rid of her before she can give the information to Dan.

When his son accidentally kills someone, a lawyer must defend the man wrongly charged with the murder.

A young drifter and small-town waitress witness a corrupt sheriff murder his own deputy. Framed for the murder and pursued by the sheriff, they run for their life to try and stay alive.

Attorney Anthony Keane agrees to represent Londonite Mrs. Paradine, who has been fingered in her husband's murder. From the start, the married lawyer is drawn to the enigmatic beauty, and he begins to cast about for a way to exonerate his client. Keane puts the Paradine household servant on the stand, suggesting he is the killer. But Keane soon loses his way in the courtroom, and his half-baked plan sets off a stunning chain of events.

"Breaking Point" is a dramatic tale of corruption and self-realization, in which one man has to overcome a deep-seated conspiracy and his own lingering past in order to gain the redemption he desires.

A Senator, accused of bribery on circumstantial evidence and sent to prison, decides to commit suicide so that his daughter will feel free to marry the son of a judge. A story told through the eyes of ten people, all familiar with the victim and all with varying versions.

When newlyweds visit Las Vegas, the wife's shady past comes to the surface.

Best-selling author John Grisham deviates from his usual literary thrillers with this winning film that stars Harry Connick Jr. as Tripp Spence, a widower who goes on the run from the IRS with his 12-year-old baseball-phenomenon son, Derrick (Shawn Salinas). They assume new identities and flee to Las Vegas, where Derrick, now known as Mickey, joins a team that makes it to the Little League World Series. But will fame give away his true identity?

A prosecutor quits his job and becomes a defense attorney when he finds out that a man he got convicted and executed was actually innocent.

Successful New York attorney Sam Leibowitz travels to the South in 1933 to defend nine young black men accused of raping two women on an Alabama freight train.

The Chocolate City dancers come together to save their club from foreclosure. They decide to enter a national stripper competition, traveling all the way to Las Vegas to try their luck.

After the horrific death of his wife and two sons, suicide seems to be the only escape for small town attorney Kent "Mac" McClain... until he's assigned a capital punishment case that begins to transform his life and those around him forever.

William Foster is a slick attorney who stays within the law, but specializes in representing crooks and shady characters. He's adept at keeping them out of jail, winning acquittals, and having decisions reversed, thus springing criminals out of prison. He is romantically involved with dancer Irene Manners, who is two-timing him, although she wants to marry him. She kills a man driving while out with her other man, Jack Defoe, who takes the blame. Unfortunately, a ring Foster had just given Irene is found at the crime scene. Foster ends up defending Jack, but when the ring is found, he thinks he is protecting Irene, so pleads guilty to jury tampering.

Barry Brandon, a criminal lawyer, visits the night club of Denny Larkin, his primary client, with Betty Walker, a spoiled society girl. The police raid the club and Brandon pleads that the whole group is guilty, just to get even with Larkin for a rebuke. On the same night in court, Madge Carter is on trial for disorderly conduct, and Brandon volunteers to defend her, and proves the case against her if a frame-up. Finding that she is penniless, Brandon hires her as his secretary, and falls in love with her. Brandon is appointed district attorney and has ambitions of becoming the state governor. Having dinner at Betty's home, she maneuvers him, while he is drunk, into marrying her. Later, Madge is a witness when Larkin shoots down a fellow gangster. By threatening Brandon's life, he forces her to commit perjury at his trial, and say he fired in self-defense. Brandon, the prosecuting attorney (who has had his marriage to Betty annulled) knows she is lying but doesn't know why.

This Universal programmer was based on a Collier's Magazine story by journalist Quentin Reynolds. This story in turn was ostensibly based on a true incident, in which a gangster "returned from the dead" to save an innocent young man from the electric chair. The nurse of the film's title is Katharine McDonald, who falls in love with her prizefighter-patient Lee Burke as he recovers from a beating received in a fixed prizefight. Katharine must fend off the advances of criminal attorney John Dodge, another patient who also loves her and becomes jealous of Lee. But when Lee is framed for the murder of his disgruntled manager, Slice, by a henchman of the fight-fix leader, Joe Largo, Dodge takes on his defense and works with Katherine to discover the real killer. Convicted and sentenced to death, Burke is about to walk the "last mile", as Katharine encourages mortally wounded Largo to a deathbed confession.

Frontier peacekeeper Sheriff Galt faces a crisis of conscience in The Iron Sheriff. In the aftermath of a robbery-murder, Galt follows the trail of evidence directly to his own son, Benjie. Sworn to uphold the law at all costs, Galt is grimly determined to see that Benjie will receive a fair trial without any coercion on his part. But the townsfolk have already decided that the sheriff will try to spring the boy, and a lynch-mob mentality slows festers its way through the community. As the trial proceeds, it becomes obvious that Benjie is going to hang for his alleged crime, but there's still one or two surprises in store.

Dr. Christian takes time out from his appointed rounds to help clear a bank teller of embezzlement charges.

Louis Friedlander-directed film

An attorney's immature college-student daughter becomes romantically involved with a mobster, unaware that a nightclub singer also loves him - or that her father is secretly the mob's leader.

A beautiful woman goes to Las Vegas in a scheme to make her husbnd jealous, but once she gets there she becomes involved with another man.

Shannon Tweed stars as the divorced defense attorney who gets caught in a passionate love affair with an accused murderer.

When a high school basketball coach is fired for praying with one of his players, he follows God's calling and hires an agnostic, gambling lawyer to file a lawsuit.

A writer takes a job as a secretary because her scrupulous husband isn't bringing in the dough as an attorney. When her new employer is murdered, she can't seem to make up her mind as to whether she "dunnit" or not.

A lawyer defends a migrant worker in a sensational murder trial.

Apprentice lawyer Robin Weathers turns a civil suit into a headline grabbing charade. He must reexamine his scruples after his shenanigans win him a promotion in his firm, and he must now defend a college professor who is appearantly guilty of murder.

A Hillbilly hits the big time in Las Vegas.

There is no question that the Arab terrorist portrayed by Robert Davi is guilty of killing five US citizens in Barcelona. Even his lawyers have zero respect for the rabidly sociopathic Davi. But Jewish defence attorney Ron Leibman is obsessed with the concept of Due Process, and has vowed that Davi will receive a scrupulously fair trial when the terrorist is extradited to America. The defence mounted by Leibman confounds and aggravates government prosecutor Sam Waterston--but he, like Leibman, remains a man of judiciary integrity.

When a handsome attorney sets off to find a former lover, he finds himself caught in a web of deceit and murder.

An assistant prosecutor and his spunky friend investigate a suddenly hot case.

A crusading reporter plans his own arrest and conviction for first degree murder, trying to show that the death sentence should be outlawed when based on circumstantial evidence alone, but his plan goes awry.

Lady lawyer Portia Merryman (Frieda Inescourt) defends woebegone Elizabeth Manners (Heather Angel), who is on trial for shooting her lover Earle Condon (Neil Hamilton). Ironically, Portia herself had once had a relationship with Earle Condon, but Earle's father, powerful publisher John Condon (Clarence Kolb), forced them apart. She has a pretty good idea of what is going on in Elizabeth's head, since she herself was on the verge of killing Earle Condon when his father ruthlessly took custody of her illegitimate son. As Portia toils and strains to free her client, she carries on a romance with Dan Foster (Walter Abel) -- the attorney for the prosecution. LA Law and The Practice have nothing on this one!

A drunken attorney tries to sober up in order to defend a friend in murder case.

When a successful New York public defender loses his first case, he is pulled into a drug heist by a former client in an effort to beat the broken system at its own game.

A teenage high school drop-out Bobby McLaughlin is accused of the murder of a local drug dealer he says he didn’t commit. When he is convicted with little evidence, his father begins a fierce struggle to free his son from prison.

A retired criminal lawyer is persuaded to take on one more case and becomes involved with his client's wife.

A man is wrongly convicted for murder and sent to prison, where he is accused of murdering a brutal guard he killed in self-defense.

An attorney comes out of retirement to defend a prominent doctor, who has been accused of the mercy killing of his wife.

A young girl is being tried for murder. Her defense attorney attempts to show how her descent into a life of crime, prostitution and degradation was caused by her puritanical, religious fanatic mother.

Nora Mason becomes entangled in a family mix-up of murder and scandal that threatens to ruin her career and entire future; Unless the mother she does not know can find a way to save her.

A crusading DA falls for a defense attorney with a criminal past.

A serial killer stalks prostitutes on the mean streets of Las Vegas.

Ramsey Denison investigates a terrifying pattern of police corruption and discovers that behind the shimmering surface of Las Vegas lies a police department with individuals willing to go to any lengths to cover up crimes.

A hit man's boss refers him to a client, a dangerous woman who mixes business with pleasure.

Romance at a murder trial with a pair of sequestered jurors who are the only ones who think that the woman in the dock is innocent. Separated from their normal lives, jurors Terry Scott and David Campbell start to fall in love.

When an attorney discovers her client committed murder to close a deal she flees to Las Vegas pursued to two relentless hitmen.

An electric shock enables Satch to predict numbers, so the Bowery Boys are off to Las Vegas to win enough money at the roulette wheels to let their landlady buy an apartment building. Witnessing his winning streak, some gangsters decide to move in and find out his "system" for beating the odds.

An attorney (Tom Conway) learns he was duped into being his gangster murder client's (Steve Brodie) alibi.

Six best friends decide to make an impulse trip to Las Vegas in hopes of mending Santi and Annie's dying relationship. When Clive decides to stage a breakdown so Santi can "save the day", their truck "actually" breaks down in the middle of a long-ago forgotten ghost town. The eclectic group soon learns about the old legend of "Harold Oates aka The Oatmeal Man" and find themselves in the middle of a blood thirsty killer's luring ground. Will the group make it through the night? Or will they become a breakfast topping?

Bill Weldon is an Ad man who craves his wife Margaret's approval of his work, instead he gets constructive (and on-target) feedback, which he hates. Things get really strange when Bill creates advertising for a wacky inventor's embalming fluid.

A computer nerd starts winning big in Las Vegas, and finds women being attracted to him.

One December day around Christmastime I am in the city of Las Vegas talking to Harry the Horse about this and that, when I hear this yarn about a citizen by the name of Murray Crown (Tom Arnold), who runs a clip joint which he prefers to call a casino. It seems that this Murray Crown not only has the John Laws breathing down his neck, but it is also a fact that he is married to this doll called Shirley (Katey Sagal), who is known far and wide as the green-eyed type.

Mr. Big, the neighborhood gangster (Tommy "Tiny" Lister), sends his sassy, sexy attorney to Miss. B's Hair Salon to give Miss. B an eviction notice. This neighborhood salon must rally together, Stylists and customers, to help raise the money to save the Salon. There are obstacles along the way. Tyron the neighborhood Don Wan has gotten between all the ladies in the Salon. Everybody is fighting. Stylists are competing for clients. There is no love happening here except Tyron's advances on everyone...Will Miss B be able to save her Salon or will it all go down the drain.

When his former secretary is accused of a murder, Perry Mason gives up a judgeship to defend her.

Bill Pullman (Independence Day, Torchwood) stars as Rusty Sabich, a judge charged with the murder of his wife, a situation that comes 20 years after he was cleared in the death of his mistress. During this latest trial, a secret affair from Rusty's recent past threatens to hamper his defense and fracture his relationship with his son. Oscar® winner Marcia Gay Harden (Pollack, Damages) plays Rusty's wife, while Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2, Law & Order: LA) is his friend and defense attorney. Scott Turow's Innocent is a sequel to Turow's bestseller Presumed Innocent. The movie is written and directed by Mike Robe

Perry must defend the husband of an old flame from a murder charge.

American scientist Dr. Frank Smith is brought to Britain to help the C.I.A. There is a defecting East block scientist they want him to debrief. The commies are less than amused and set Dr. Smith up for a murder.

A defense attorney jeopardizes his career to save his client.

After a greedy Las Vegas casino owner steals his employee's pension funds, the staff teams up to pull off a heist with a twist.

Louis heads to Las Vegas, to reveal the world behind the myths of casino culture. Among the people he meets are two of the casino's 'high-rollers' and an employee who looks after them as well as a retired doctor who says she has gambled away $4million in seven years.

Dream city, Sin City, a mirage in the desert, Las Vegas is a film set in its own right, a piece of pop art, an outdoor museum of American culture. What is the story behind the neon lights and fantastical buildings? What will its future be in these tough times? Alan Yentob takes a mob tour and talks to producers and performers about the golden days when Sinatra and Dino held the stage, and the wise guys called the shots.

A Mexican boy accused of rape and murder becomes a pawn for Communists and red-baiters. A courtroom drama set in 1947 and underlying post-WW2 acute problems facing the USA such as stormy race relations and the growing threat of local communism.

As a favor to a friend, defense attorney McBride takes on a client accused of murdering a woman. When McBride and his partner Phil investigate the deceased, they discover she had many identities and with each new life she was leading the list of suspects grows larger.

Katelyn 'Kate' Weston, a country girl who became a lawyer and joined an L.A. law firm years ago, specializes in defending minors having committed violent crimes who nobody else takes on. She gradually got estranged from her family, but then her older brother Ryan asks her to return to the farm he runs with their dad Thane who has become impossibly absentminded. By the time he is formally diagnosed with serious Alzheimer, she realizes how badly she really knew her family, having ran from her past after the trauma of witnessing her mother's suicide at age seven, and tries to talk it trough with Ryan and dad while he still has lucid moments.

An escort, a stripper, and a drug dealer come together in Las Vegas in this tale of gangsters, second chances, and finding love in Sin City.

Down-on-his-luck lawyer Warren Blackburn defends wealthy Texan Johnnie Faye Boudreau, who is accused of murdering her husband.

A study of an amoral and sleazy defense lawyer who suddenly tries to "go straight" when he finds out that his tart wife is cheating on him; as well as the similarities he has in life with one of his clients.

Well-known philanthropist and deaf-mute John G. Harrison is identified leaving the scene of several murders but evades successful prosecution as there are hundreds of witnesses who have also seen him emceeing benefits at the exact same time as the murders.

A young woman graduates from a New York City law school, returns to her small hometown, and finds her first case is defending a childhood friend accused of murder. Director Lewis Seiler's 1936 courtroom drama stars Claire Trevor, Isabel Jewell, Michael Whalen, Gene Lockhart, Eric Linden, Charles Middleton, Edward Brophy, Kathleen Lockhart, Guinn Williams, El Brendel, Sterling Holloway, Ray Brown, Howard Hickman, Frank McGlynn Sr., Charles Waldron Sr., Spencer Charters and Eily Malyon.

A wealthy ex-bootlegger comes to the rescue of a formerly rich society girl after her gold-digging fiancé leaves her stranded when he finds out she's broke. The bootlegger proposes a deal: he will settle her debts if she teaches him how to be "a gentleman".

A deaf, dumb and blind man, Jacques Vauthier (Kieron Moore), confesses to committing a murder, apparently without motive. He depends on his defense attorney, Delfot (Michael Redgrave), to unravel the mystery behind his actions.

A criminal defense attorney must choose between family, duty and her own dangerous desires when she takes on the case of an artist accused of murder.