Police Court (1932) PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD

Stars: Henry B. Walthall, Leon Janney, Lionel Belmore
Director: Louis King
When a once great stage and screen actor falls from fame because of his alcoholism; his young son is determined to see his father "make good" again.

[@petekanter9059]

This film could be considered as being fictionally-biographical of its star. Because
Henry Brazeale Walthall did, in fact, collapse on the set of his final motion picture,
CHINA CLIPPER (1936) after he'd completed his scenes. He passed away 3 weeks
later, from heart failure, on June 17th of that year, at the age of 58.
Director Frank Cappra wanted to cast him in LOST HORIZON (1937), but according
to Cappra: "Frail and failing, he died before we could test him."

[@mallenjm252]

Thank you for sharing this interesting background historical information.

[@mallenjm252]

So much depth sadness and substance. Thank you for posting this rare footage. And the posts below are so historically informative.

[@sailendrayalamanchili4126]

Great movie, brings back the old days of Hollywood in action, and the depression era, when people were unemployed and literally starving .

[@aadamtx]

Thanks! I hadn't heard of POLICE COURT before, and it was a surprisingly good glimpse of how pictures were shot back in the day. Always good to see Walthall, but a shame that Janney never achieved the "name above the title" recognition of Jackie Cooper or others from that period, even though he had a long career.

[@mackb909]

This was a terrific little movie; hadn't seen/heard of it before. Sort of a proto-"What Price Hollywood"/"A Star Is Born."

[@howardkoontz4735]

First time I have seen this type of movie. It reminds me of the "Sunday Court" in South Baltimore in the 1960's. My father and a few other retirees would always attend. The Judge considered them the "Jury." Same type of defendants. Of course, the Sunday Court is nothing but a history and now everyone goes to the city court.

[@mr.blazeblue]

One year after POLICE COURT, Henry B. Walthall had a small part in THE SIN of NORA MORAN,
as a priest who consulted with a husband and wife who wanted to adopt a little girl -- played by
child star Cora Sue Collins, who just 6. Leon Janney, when he played alongside of Walthall, was
15 years-old. Leon passed away on October 25th, 1980 at the age of 63. As for Cora Sue, she's
now less than 3 months away from being 97. (Born on April 19th, 1927.)

[@j3lny425]

Was this before defense lawyers were invented?