Our Leading Citizen

Lem Schofield, a lawyer in a one-time small-town turned industrialized big city, runs his firm on examples set by Abraham Lincoln and is a friend to the poor. Clay Clinton, his late partner's son joins the firm but is anxious for fast success and considers Schofield's old-fashioned principles antiquated. Being in love with Schofield's daughter and impatient for success he moves to offices supplied by the city's most powerful industrialist, J.T. Tapley, who has plans to use Clay's good family lineage as a stepping stone to political power. The unscrupulous Tapley precipitates a strike in his factory mill which causes a rupture between the former partners. Schofield sets out to bring Tapley and his political henchmen to justice.

Cast

Bob Burns

as Lem Schofield

Susan Hayward

as Judith Schofield

Joseph Allen

as Clay Clinton

Elizabeth Patterson

as Aunt Tillie

Charles Bickford

as Shep Muir

Gene Lockhart

as J.T. Tapley

Kathleen Lockhart

as Mrs. Barker

Otto Hoffman

as Mr. Stoney

Clarence Kolb

as Jim Hanna

Paul Guilfoyle

as Jerry Peters

Reviews

Similar Movies

U-Turn

In this Canadian romance, Scott (David Selby) was so smitten by the looks of a pretty girl that he spends years looking for her. He keeps his searches a secret from his live-in lover, whom he stays with the entire while. When Scott actually meets the girl, he discovers that she has been similarly motivated, even though she is married and has had two children in the meantime. They share a romantic assignation and discover that the ideal figure they were each searching for is absent.

⭐ 4.1

A Tale of Two Cities

Set against the conditions leading up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, French doctor Alexandre Manette serves an 18-year imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, followed by his release to live in London with the daughter he has never met.

⭐ 6.8

A History of Violence

An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.

⭐ 7.2

She Asked for It

Dwight Stanford and his wife, Penny, are a pair of spendthrifts who can't hold on to money, dependent for support on Dwight's rich uncle, who sends them a monthly allowance. Conrad Norris, Dwight's cousin, disapproves of Dwight and Penny, and resents his uncle's generosity. The uncle is the victim of a hit-and-run accident and, there being no will, Conrad, as next of kin, inherits. Switch, the uncle's lawyer, tells Dwight he is shutout with no hope of appeal. Dwight starts writing mystery novels about a fictional detective named Steven Knight, which become instant hits and the money pours in.

⭐ 8.0

Anatomy of a Murder

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.

⭐ 7.8

Evita

The hit musical based on the life of Evita Duarte, an Argentinian actress who eventually became the wife of Argentinian president Juan Perón, and the most beloved and hated woman in Argentina.

⭐ 6.1

Reservation Road

Two fathers' lives intersect when one of them is involved in a terrible and sudden hit-and-run car accident that leaves the other's son dead. In response, the two men react in unexpected ways as a reckoning looms in the near future.

⭐ 6.5

Tell Me No Secrets

Jess Koster is a young attorney in Los Angeles, who is being stalked by the serial killer she is prosecuting.

⭐ 5.3

Polytechnic

Pauly belongs to a well off family in a rural village of Kerala. A politician by profession, he does many helpful activities for the benefit of poor people in the village. Sukumaran Nair a member of the opposition party, tries to disrupt whatever Pauly does. They have been enemies from a very long time. Things become worse when Pauly falls in love with Sukumaran Nair's daughter Aswathy

⭐ 4.3

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

After the death of a United States Senator, the idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. The naive and earnest new senator soon finds himself battling political corruption.

⭐ 7.8

55 Steps

The inspiring true story of Eleanor Riese, a mental illness patient herself, who brings a class action suit to give competent mental patients the right to have a say in their medication while they're in a hospital, and Colette Hughes, the lawyer appointed to her case.

⭐ 6.7

Good Night, and Good Luck.

The story of journalist Edward R. Murrow's stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts in the early 1950s.

⭐ 7.1

Acts of Vengeance

A fast-talking lawyer transforms his body and takes a vow of silence, not to be broken until he finds out who killed his wife and daughter and has his revenge.

⭐ 6.0

A Fish Called Wanda

While a diamond advocate attempts to steal a collection of diamonds, troubles arise when he realises he’s not the only one after the collection.

⭐ 7.2

The Discovery of Heaven

Disappointed with humanity, God wants to revoke his contract with humanity and wants to take back the stone tablets containing the ten commandments. To this end an angel is sent out to affect the personal lives of three humans so an appropriate child may be conceived.

⭐ 6.6

Cape Fear

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

⭐ 7.3

Chicago

Murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.

⭐ 7.1

Primal Fear

Defense attorney Martin Vail takes on jobs for money and prestige rather than any sense of the greater good. His latest case involves an altar boy, accused of brutally murdering the archbishop of Chicago. Vail finds himself up against his ex-pupil and ex-lover, but as the case progresses and the Church's dark secrets are revealed, Vail finds that what appeared a simple case takes on a darker, more dangerous aspect.

⭐ 7.7

Under Suspicion

A lawyer is asked to come to the police station to clear up a few loose ends in his witness report of a foul murder. "This will only take ten minutes", they say, but it turns out to be one loose end after another, and the ten minutes he is away from his speech become longer and longer.

⭐ 6.1