For the Defense

Slick defense attorney William Foster (William Powell, thoroughly in his roguish element) has made a career out of using his fast-talking techniques to get his clearly guilty clients acquitted - without ever crossing the line into out-and-out lying. His peculiar code of ethics is challenged, however, when the woman he loves, stage star Irene Manners (Kay Francis), kills a pedestrian in a drunk-driving accident - a case that may require more extralegal maneuvering than his usual methods if he hopes to save her. (Criterion)