William & Mary

Law Library Movies: Jurisprudence



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Law movies
Call It Murder (1934)
Rated:  NR  Stars: ***
Format:  DVD  74 min. B&W
Plot: A jury foreman is responsible for tipping the scales of justice in favor of a guilty verdict that sent an innocent girl to her death in the electric chair.
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Fox, O.P. Heggie, Henry Hull, Margaret Wycherly, Lynne Overman, Katherine Wilson. Directed by Chester Erskine.
Categories:  Jury  Jurisprudence  Romance

Law movies
Crime and Punishment (1935)
Rated:  NR  Stars: ****
Format:  DVD  88 min. B&W
Plot: Believing he can commit the perfect crime, a man robs and murders an elderly pawnbroker, but soon finds himself engaged in a battle of wits with a policeman determined to wring out a confession.
Cast: Peter Lorre, Marian Marsh, Robert Allen. Directed by Josef von Sternberg.
Categories:  Drama  Ethics  Jurisprudence

Law movies
Criminal Code, The (1931)
Rated:  NR  Stars: ****
Format:  DVD  83 min. B&W
Plot: A young man that is wrongfully convicted has a chance at being pardoned, but must break the criminal code and identify an inmate who has murdered another.
Cast: Boris Karloff, Walter Huston, Philips Holmes. Directed by Howard Hawkes.
Categories:  Criminal Law  Justice  Jurisprudence

Law movies
Crucible, The (1996)
Rated:  PG-13  Stars: ***1/2
Format:  DVD  123 min. 
Plot: A 17th-century Salem woman accuses an ex-lover's wife of witchery in an adaptation of the Arthur Miller play. Soon the entire village is gripped in a fever of hysteria, bigotry and fear.
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Joan Allen, Paul Scofield. Directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Categories:  Criminal Law  Drama  Jurisprudence

Law movies
Defender, The (1957)
Rated:  NR  Stars: ****
Format:  DVD  130 min. B&W
Plot: A two part episode from the Studio One series about a man on trial for murder.
Cast: Martin Balsam, Ralph Bellamy, Steve McQueen, William Shatner. Directed by Robert Mulligan.
Categories:  Criminal Law  Jurisprudence  Drama

Law movies
Heavens Fall (2006)
Rated:  PG-13  Stars: ***
Format:  DVD  105 min. 
Plot: Two young women accuse nine black youths of rape in the segregated South.
Cast: Anthony Mackie, Bill Sage, Azura Skye, Bill Smitrovich. Directed by Terry Green.
Categories:  Racism  Jurisprudence  Civil Rights

Law movies
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Rated:  NR  Stars: ****
Format:  DVD (2 tape set) 178 min. B&W
Plot: The Allied judge presiding over the trial of accused Nazi war criminals must not only deal with their guilt but with the guilt of a society that allowed such crimes to occur.
Cast: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Maximillian Schell, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland. Directed by Stanley Kramer.
Categories:  Jurisprudence  International  War

Law movies
Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, The (1972)
Rated:  PG  Stars: ***
Format:  DVD  120 min. 
Plot: A man is nearly killed by the inhabitants of a badlands bar and brothel. He returns to take vengeance.
Cast: Paul Newman, Stacey Keach, Victoria Principal, Jacqueline Bisset, Ava Gardner. Directed by John Huston.
Categories:  Comedy  Western  Jurisprudence

Law movies
M (1931)
Rated:  NR  Stars: *****
Format:  DVD (2 disc set) 99 min. B&W
Plot: A child murderer is chased through the city by both the police and the underworld. Subtitled in English.
Cast: Peter Lorre, Gustav Grundgens. Directed by Fritz Lang.
Categories:  Foreign  Jurisprudence  Mystery/Suspense

Law movies
Miserables, Les (1935)
Rated:  NR  Stars: ****
Format:  DVD  216 min. B&W
Plot: A Frenchman of good character has nevertheless been convicted for the minor crime of stealing bread. A minor infraction leads to his relentless pursuit by a policeman.
Cast: Fredric March, Charles Laughton, Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Directed by Joseph M. Schenk.
Categories:  Musical  Law Enforcement  Jurisprudence

Law movies
On the Basis of Sex (2018)
Rated:  PG-13  Stars: ***1/2
Format:  DVD  120 min. 
Plot: Young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg brings a groundbreaking case before the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Cast: Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Sam Waterston, Kathy Bates. Directed by Mimi Leder.
Categories:  Gender  Jurisprudence  Drama

Law movies
Story of Qiu Ju, The (1992)
Rated:  PG  Stars: ***
Format:  DVD  110 min. 
Plot: In this comedy of justice, a pregnant peasant woman seeks redress from the Chinese bureaucracy after the village chief physically insults her husband. In Chinese, with English subtitles.
Cast: Li Gong, Peiqi Liu, Liuchun Yang, Quesheng Lei, Zhijun Ge. Directed by Yimou Zhang.
Categories:  Jurisprudence  Foreign  Comedy

Law movies
Take the Money and Run (1969)
Rated:  PG  Stars: ***1/2
Format:  DVD  85 min. 
Plot: A failed musician is incarcerated for bank robbery.
Cast: Woody Allen, Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire, Jacquelyn Hyde. Directed by Woody Allen.
Categories:  Comedy  Jurisprudence  Sentencing

The Wolf Law Library welcomes your suggestions for additions to the Feature Film Collection! If there is a law-related movie you feel we might be missing, please submit your suggestion to the Circulation & Reserve Desk at lawcir@wm.edu.

You can view a list of all law library movies in the online catalog.