"The Defender" - Featuring Steve McQueen

Click on the title to get the juice... Film 1. The Hunter (1980) 2. Tom Horn (1980) 3. An Enemy of the People (1978) 4. Dixie Dynamite (1976) 5. The Towering Inferno (1974) 6. Papillon (1973) 7. The Getaway (1972) 8. Junior Bonner (1972) 9. On Any Sunday (1971) 10. Le Mans (1971) 11. The Reivers (1969) 12. Bullitt (1968) 13. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) 14. The Sand Pebbles (1966) 15. Nevada Smith (1966) 16. The Cincinnati Kid (1965) 17. Baby The Rain Must Fall(1965) 18. Love With The Proper Stranger (1963) 19. Soldier In The Rain (1963) 20. The Great Escape (1963) 21. The War Lover (1962) 22. Hell Is For Heroes (1962) 23. The Honeymoon Machine (1961) 24. The Magnificent Seven (1960) 25. Never So Few (1959) 26. The Great St.Louis Bank Robbery (1959) 27. The Blob (1958) 28. Never Love A Stranger (1958) 29. Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 30. Girl On The Run (1953) TV 1. Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959&60) 2. Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958-61) 3. Trackdown (1958) 4. Tales of Wells Fargo (1958) 5. Climax! (1958) 6. The 20th Century-Fox Hour (1957) 7. West Point (1957) 8. Studio One (1957) TV 9. The United States Steel Hour (1956) 10. Goodyear Television Playhouse (1955)	Studio One: The Defender
	The best homevideo option for this Two Part Television drama is DVD. It is NOT 16/9 enhanced, and is presented in the shows Original Aspect Ratio of 1.33:1. DVD Extras are: Documentary and text bio's of the lead actors. The DVD also features the choice to watch the show with or without the original TV advertisement breaks.

	Studio One was a programme which featured live to air TV drama. It is of particular note because it also showcased many of the young up and coming movie and TV stars of the day. The Defender was a two part live drama for Studio One, and stars Ralph Bellamy, William Shatner and Steve McQueen.
	Attorney's and Client. Bellamy and Shatner play a father and son legal team who must defend McQueen's character from a seemingly unbeatable murder charge. Steve's performance was secondary to that of Bellamy and Shatner in terms of screen time, but his role was still a major one. He gives a very convincing performance as a troubled young man whose innnocence to the charges seems so unlikely that even his own lawyers don't believe him.
	*Bellamy is very good as the lawer who is having ethical qualms about defending his client, and Shatner (in his pre-Star Trek* days) gives a good understated performance.**
	A loving mother and a troubled son. Actress Vivian Nathan is also very effective in her role as the heartbroken mother of the accused young man.
	The DVD features the ability to watch the show with or without the original TV ads. I'd recommend watching the ads if you want to get a feel for the really fascinating style of TV advertising from the 1940's and 50's. There is also a great feature on the history of Studio One, which features good interviews with actors Charlton Heston, Jack Klugman and director John Frankenheimer. A small text based bio section talks about the careers of the three main actors. Approx running time (with ads) is 130 minutes.