The Law in Her Hands

My summary is NOT meant to offend...believe me. But this is the attitude that is pervasive in "The Law in Her Hands".

When the film begins, a thug slaps around a restaurant owner and tries to sell him protection. Two women witness this and are not dissuaded by threats from the gangsters to not show up for court after their friend and fellow thug is captured. However, the gang doesn't realize that these are two extra-ordinary women. Wentworth & Davis (Margaret Lindsey and Glenda Farrell) are lawyers and they do more than just testify...they help the DA convict the guy!

As for these lady lawyers, they are recent law school graduates and are about to open up their own practice. However, they cannot find any clients...possibly because it's a sexist world back in the 1930s. In fact, the DA is SUPER-sexist as he wants Wentworth to simply close her practice and make babies....even though she worked long and hard to finish law school. In disgust, Wentworth begins working for Legs Gordon (Lyle Talbot)...a crook who offered her work when no one else would. It turns out that the lawyers are great at their work...and get acquittal after acquittal because of their underhanded tactics. In other words, you appreciate that the women want to be self-sufficient and successful...though they do it in a very sleazy manner. Because of this, the message about equality and women's rights is very muddled...which is a shame. And, the message by the end of the film seems to be that a woman's place IS in the home!! It's a shame...the acting is nice and the film could have worked...but didn't due to the times in which it was made and indifferent writing.

Margaret Lindsay and Glenda Farrell are new lawyers who open their own office and soon find they have no customers. Lindsay falls for Warren Hull, who works in the D. A.'s office. When he tries to one-up her on a case, she resorts to a little trickery to win, which sets her down the road to working with a racketeer (Lyle Talbot). Soon the dough is rolling in. Then Talbot is accused of a serious crime, and wounds Hull. Will Lindsay save the day? The ending could have been really good, but the film falls back on a pat finale.

Farrell doesn't get as much airtime as Lindsay, and when she does, it's mostly for wisecracks. Eddie Acuff supplies some comic relief as a process server who collects various contusions, abrasions, and broken bones in the course of serving papers. In a running gag, he looks more beat up in every scene, progressing from a few small bandages when he first appears on screen, to his arm in a sling, to needing crutches, and ending up in a wheelchair during the final scene. I guess this stuff is hilarious if you happen to be the Marquis de Sade. Lindsay is very cute, but I got a little tired of her pronouncing every "a" as "ah." "Let me ahsk you something." "There is a chahnce."

I cahn't take this.

As this picture opens, we see fresh law school grads Margaret Lindsay and Glenda Farrell taking the oath and becoming lawyers. "All we need now's an office and a client," Farrell says.

They do set up an office but the clients don't come, so Lindsay works as a waitress and discovers that her boss is being shaken down for protection money. What can she do?

She soon encounters smooth talking Lyle Talbot, who runs the Restaurant Owners Benevolent Organization. Talbot doesn't like to do rough stuff but with an organization name like that, we know what his business is. However, instead of putting the pressure on this lady lawyer, he decides to put her on the payroll. Lindsay resists the idea but soon enough the lure of easy money has her working for Talbot - and she and Farrell have moved into a nice big fancy office.

Meanwhile, assistant district attorney Warren Hull has taken an interest in both the protection racket and in Lindsay herself. In fact, he would like her to quit lawyering and marry him. She resists him too but eventually, of course, things come to a head and Lindsay is forced to make a choice.

The cast do their best and they all talk very fast, but the silly plot here really defeats their efforts. Eddie Acuff has an amusing comic role as a process server who helps out his pals Lindsay and Farrell. Talbot as the crook is quite a bit more interesting than poor Warren Hull as the straight as an arrow prosecutor. Glenda Farrell is - most annoyingly - pretty much wasted as Lindsay's partner in law who apparently is little more than an assistant. Isn't she supposed to be a lawyer here too? You'd think they would have at least written in a few choice wisecracks for Glenda to deliver. Lindsay herself is good enough in the lead role but the whole thing is never remotely believable, even for a B movie.

It does move fast and has an exciting courtroom climax. Overall, though, not as much as fun as it sounds like it would be.

The Law In He Hands casts Margaret Lindsay and Glenda Farrell as a pair of female attorneys back n the day when that was still a rarity. Lindsay is the serious one and Farrell is Torchy Blane with a law degree.

Lindsay has one irrevocable conflict of interest. She's going out with ADA Warren Hull but she's on retainer from racketeer Lyle Talbot. Talbot likes her style and the novelty impresses him.

When Hull is wounded, Talbot is arrested and Lindsay has to defend him in court. Back in the days of The Code this story could only go one way.

As for hat happens think of the Al Pacino classic,, And Justice Fpr All. The law has some rigorous rules .

A talented set of actors, including Glenda Farrell in her hard-boiled, tough-talking mode, work hard in this Warner's B about a pair of young woman lawyers starting out, fighting for work and -- in Margaret Lindsay's case -- the amatory advances of Warren Hull. It comes off as pretty much of a programmer. Sidney Hickox' camera work is up to Warner Brothers fast-moving, underlit standard, but none of the actors, with the exception of the always engaging Miss Farrell, and Al Shean in a small role at the beginning of the movie as a restaurateur resisting some mobsters in the protection racket, manage any real oomph in their roles -- even Linsday and Talbot seem a bit stagy. Debit perennial B director Clemens for the failure.

THE LAW IN HER HANDS has the makings of a decent Warners B. The courtroom vignettes are amusing, but it's been done too many times and by people more interested in the work.