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The Lawyer is a 1970 courtroom drama film loosely based on the Sam Sheppard murder case, in which a physician is charged with killing his wife following a highly publicized and sloppy investigation. The film was directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring Barry Newman as the energetic, opportunistic defense attorney Tony Petrocelli and Diana Muldaur as his wife Ruth Petrocelli. The supporting cast features Robert Colbert, Kathleen Crowley (in her final role), and an unbilled bit part featuring an emerging, then-on-the-rise, star Michael Murphy as an intern in a legal office. The film is the source of the role Newman reprised in the TV series Petrocelli.

The Lawyer
Directed by	Sidney J. Furie
Starring	Barry Newman Diana Muldaur Harold Gould
Music by	Malcolm Dodds
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	May 15, 1970 (1970-05-15)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Tony Petrocelli is a Harvard-educated attorney of Italian heritage who practices in an unidentified part of the American Southwest. He works (and drives) at a frenetic pace, not only because he is a zealous advocate for his defendants (which includes a regular run of drunks and other small-time criminal cases) but because of the vast distances of western prairie he must cross in order to meet clients, investigate his cases and make court appointments.

A big case lands in his lap when he is asked to defend a young, prosperous physician who expects to be charged with the bludgeoning murder of his socialite wife.

Cast

• Barry Newman as Tony Petrocelli
• Harold Gould as Eric P. Scott
• Diana Muldaur as Ruth Petrocelli
• Robert Colbert as Jack Harrison
• Kathleen Crowley as Alice Fiske
• Warren J. Kemmerling as Sergeant Moran (as Warren Kemmerling)
• Jeffery V. Thompson as Andy Greer (as Jeff Thompson)
• Tom Harvey as Bob Chambers
• Booth Colman as Judge Crawford
• Ken Swofford as Charlie O'Keefe
• E. J. André as F.J. Williamson
• William Sylvester as Paul Harrison
• Melendy Britt as Ann Greer
• John Himes as Myro McCauley
• Ivor Barry as Wyler
• Michael Murphy (uncredited) Intern at Legal Office

References

External links

• The Lawyer at IMDb
• New York Times movie review by Vincent Canby

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