State's Attorney

• Director: George Archainbaud
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Drama
• Main Cast: John Barrymore, Helen Twelvetrees, Jill Esmond, Mary Duncan
• Release Year: 1931
• Country: US
• Run Time: 79 minutes

Plot

John Barrymore is the "State's Attorney" in the RKO picture of the same name. A brilliant criminal lawyer, Barrymore counts on his underworld connections to climb the ladder of success to the Governor's chair. "Humanized" by his girlfriend Helen Twelvetrees, a former streetwalker, Barrymore decides at long last to go straight, making mincemeat of his one-time mob patron William "Stage" Boyd in a thrilling courtroom finale. Barrymore's longtime drinking crony Gene Fowler collaborated on the script of State's Attorney with gangster-saga scrivener Rowland Brown. The film was remade (and extensively sanitized) as Criminal Lawyer in 1937. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast

• John Barrymore - Tom Cardigan
• Helen Twelvetrees - June Perry
• Jill Esmond - Lillian Ulrich
• Mary Duncan - Nora Dean

Oscar Apfel - Ulrich; Raul Roulien - Senor Alvarado; Ralph Ince - Defense Attorney; Frederick Burton - Judge; Leon Waycoff [Ames] - Prosecutor; Albert Conti - Mario; Paul Hurst - Captain Morgan; J.M. Kerrigan - Coachman; Nat Pendleton - Boxer; Lee Phelps - Bartender; Ethel Sutherland; William "Stage" Boyd - Vanny Powers; C. Henry Gordon - Attorney Grey

Credit

Carroll Clark - Art Director, James K. McGuinness - Associate Producer, George Archainbaud - Director, Willaim Hamilton - Editor, Charles L. Kimball - Editor, David O. Selznick - Executive Producer, Max Steiner - Composer (Music Score), Leo Tover - Cinematographer, Rowland Brown - Screenwriter, Gene Fowler - Screenwriter, Louis Stevens - Short Story Author