Night Court (1932) DVD

As judges, Walter Huston and Lewis Stone are opposing forces in this ripped-from-the-headlines expose of judicial corruption based on a play cowritten by famed syndicated columnist and future film producer Mark Hellinger (Brother Orchid, They Drive by Night, The Two Mrs. Carrolls). Judge Moffett (Huston) has turned the New York City night court over which he presides into a well-oiled machine of graft and corruption, punishing the innocent and profiting from the guilty. Fearing exposure from the investigation of crusading reformer Judge Osgood (Lewis Stone), Moffett sends his mistress (Noel Francis) into hiding with evidence of his crimes. This move places the dangerous information on a collision course with a young mother (Anita Page) and her good-hearted cabdriver husband (Phillips Holmes), which will disrupt, and potentially destroy, the innocent couple's happy lives.