Night Court USA, Vol. 4(1952) On DVD

Between slams of his gavel, Judge Jay Jostyn enforces justice in this spellbinding "reality" series enacting cases in a Los Angeles night court. Although the announcer presents "true cases and real people," actors play the roles of the defendants amid "live" courtroom mumbling and commotion. The riveting stories are both strange and funny, revealing a wide assortment of bizarre human frailties behind the multitude of shocking offenses.

Episode 1: Two men offer conflicting accounts of a theft. A blonde bombshell denies stealing clothes. A bookie insists he is innocent because he is in the insurance business. A bar patron defends his destruction of over 16 telephone books. A nice old lady admits to forging a prescription. A man denies that the young woman he took to a motel was a minor.

Episode 2: A young man is accused of theft by his girlfriend's father. A wife-beater blames his nagging spouse. An eccentric woman is arraigned for leaving her dead cat in the street to taunt her neighbors. A cowboy actor is embarrassed, telling how he lost a stallion in the city. A frustrated mother defends leaving her two children alone in her car at night.

Episode 3: A slimy character insists that his talent school isn't a front for a prostitution ring. Charged with non-support of his children, a father defends himself by claiming illiteracy. An elderly lady denies beating an infant while babysitting. An immigrant, arraigned for stealing a duck from a public park, defends his actions.

Episode 4: A woman defends her right to block traffic to a market that sold her rotten meat. A jazz musician explains why he squirted his landlord with a firehose. A welfare mother with a debilitating disease provokes the court's sympathy when she is charged with receiving an unreported gift. An entrepreneur running an employment service is arraigned for reneging on his promises.