''Disbarred'' is a 1939 American

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

about a crooked lawyer starring

Gail Patrick Gail Patrick (born Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick; June 20, 1911 – July 6, 1980) was an American film actress and television producer. Often cast as the bad girl or the other woman, she appeared in more than 60 feature films between 1932 a ...

and Robert Preston.Gates, Phillippa (2011)
''Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective Film''
p. 355. State University of New York Press. The supporting cast includes

Otto Kruger Otto Kruger (September 6, 1885 – September 6, 1974) was an American actor. Originally a Broadway matinée idol, he established a niche as a charming villain in films, such as in Alfred Hitchcock's ''Saboteur (film), Saboteur'' (1942) and Dougla ...

Virginia Vale Virginia Vale (born Dorothy Howe; May 20, 1920 – September 14, 2006) was an American film actress. She starred in a number of B-movie westerns but took a variety of other roles as well, notably in '' Blonde Comet'' (1941), in which she pl ...

and

Sidney Toler Sidney Toler (born Hooper G. Toler Jr., April 28, 1874 – February 12, 1947) was an American actor, playwright, and theatre director. The second non-Asian actor to play the role of Charlie Chan on screen, he is best remembered for his portrayal ...

. The movie was directed by

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

specialist

Robert Florey Robert Florey (September 14, 1900 – May 16, 1979) was a French-American director, screenwriter, film journalist and actor. Florey directed more than 50 films, the best known likely being the Marx Brothers first feature ''The Cocoanuts'' (1929 ...

Plot

Tyler Craden is disbarred by the legal profession after destroying evidence against his client, gangster Mardeen, following the murder of a cop. While on vacation, Craden ends up in a town in which a murder trial is taking place. He is impressed by defense attorney Joan Carroll and gets her a job with a firm run by Roberts, a corrupt pal. Bradley Kent, an honest prosecutor, is a rival and a suitor to Joan. She rejects marriage proposals from Kent and Craden but joins the district attorney's office to fight crime. Mardeen turns up and tries to blackmail Craden, who shoots him. The district attorney arrests Craden and Roberts, which frees Joan to continue her work and to marry Kent.

Cast

References

External links

* 1939 films Films directed by Robert Florey Films scored by Gerard Carbonara Films scored by John Leipold Film noir Paramount Pictures films American crime drama films 1939 crime drama films American black-and-white films 1930s American films 1930s English-language films English-language crime drama films {{1930s-drama-film-stub