Ladies of the Jury (DVD)

The inimitable Edna May Oliver takes over both trial and deliberations in this effervescent legal comedy-drama. When society dame Yvette Gordon (Jill Esmond) stands accused of shooting her sugar-daddy husband, it appears that the French chorus-girl gold digger is getting the comeuppance her class-hopping self richly deserves. Save for one member of the jury -- the utterly, freely outspoken society matron Mrs. Livingston Baldwin Crane (Oliver), who senses that Yvette is innocent. It's intuition and judge of character versus chauvinism and assumption as Mrs. Crane -- the sole "not guilty" vote -- sets about swaying her fellow jurors' opinions and solving a murder mystery. Replete with double (and triple!) entendre, one-line zingers, comical accent confusion and a barrel of well-timed suggestive eye rolls, this courtroom cutup is a prescient satire on societal sexism -- and high society!