Hard hitting attorneys with a heart of gold are nothing new in the annals of crime drama. Defending the defenseless against a harsh system that is about to mete out hard time or even the electric chair kept audiences on the edge of their seat, but few did it as well as girl lawyer Martha Ellis Bryant on Defense Attorney.

A product of its time, the program not only deals with a girl working in a man’s world and the pursuit of justice in an often unjust world, it is filled with early 50’s sensibility and a subtle undercurrent of anti Communism.

The program is also a showcase for the lady who Orson Welles called “the world’s greatest living radio actress”, Mercedes McCambridge. Mercedes was among the cast of Irna Philips’ Guiding Light, a frequent player on Lights Out!, Inner Sanctum and Murder at Midnight, and had the title role in Albie’s Irish Rose.