The Public Defender

If you saw the title "The Public Defender" and thought like I did that the movie is about a government-hired attorney who defends indigent people on trial, then you were as wrong as I was. It's about a vigilante of sorts called "The Reckoner" who steals the incriminating documents of the guilty in order to exonerate the innocent.

The Reckoner is Pike Winslow (Richard Dix) and it's not a secret. He's sorta like Batman without the cape or the fighting and he always leaves a calling card which simply says "The Reckoner" right above the scales of justice.

We learn very early that he works with The Professor (Boris Karloff) and Doc (Paul Hurst) to pull off his jobs. His current job is to find the evidence to clear the name of Eugene Gerry (Emmett King), the secretary and treasurer of Central Realty and Trust Company. He was made the fall guy for the company's failure and he went to prison for it. Pike had a personal interest in this case as Eugene was the father of Barbara (Shirley Grey), a woman Pike was sweet on.

A lot of movies in the 30's dealt with wealthy socialites--their romances, murders, and musings. In "The Public Defender" the Gerry family was a high society family that was dealt a raw deal and went bankrupt. At one point we are shown Barbara Gerry and her Aunt Matilda (Nella Walker) weeping as their family belongings were being sold at auction. Maybe I have a heart of stone, but I could not bring myself to feel an iota of pity for this rich family that was now feeling the constraints of not being rich. They weren't poor, they just didn't have the abundance of wealth they once had, which to me is not pitiable. They didn't deserve what happened to them, but trying to make a rich family the object of sympathy was going to take more than seeing some old items being sold at auction.

Poor rich people aside, I liked the movie. It involved mystery, suspense, and cleverness not unlike a heist movie.

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