

The Sword and the Balance
1963-02-01 · 138 min · ★ 7.7
Three young men are suspected of kidnapping and murdering a little boy. Most likely, two of them are really involved, but one is not. All of their pasts are questionable, riddled with violence and controversy. Neither the police nor the court can decide how to solve that puzzle.
Trailers are previews, not full movies.
No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.
Production details
- Directors
- André Cayatte
- Production companies
- Ultra Film, Trianon Films, Sicilia Cinematografica, Gaumont International
- Countries
- France, Italy
- Status
- Released
Top Cast
Anthony PerkinsJohnny Parsons
Jean-Claude BrialyJean-Philippe
Renato SalvatoriFrançois
Pascale AudretAgnès
Jacques MonodCommissioner
Marie DéaMadame Winter
Horst JansonMac
Fernand LedouxProsecutor
Maurice ChevitInspector
Anne ToniettiChristine Prévost
Élina LabourdetteSimone Darbon
Henri VilbertJuror
Paul AmiotMan
Teddy BilisJuror
Charles Blavette
Claude CervalPlouzenec
Janine DarceyChantal
Michel Dacquin
Germaine DelbatWidow PrévostTitle information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.
Where to watch
Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.
Availability not listed for this country.
Seasons & episodes
Recommendations

Liu Jian, an elite Chinese police officer, comes to Paris to arrest a Chinese drug lord. When Jian is betrayed by a French officer and framed for murder, he must go into hiding and find new allies.

After nearly two decades of legendary criminal feats, making him France's most notorious criminal while simultaneously feeding his desire for media attention and public adoration, Mesrine becomes increasingly paranoid and isolated, leading to a dramatic confrontation with the law that ultimately seals his fate as the nation's most infamous public enemy.

Zed is an American vault-cracker who travels to Paris to meet up with his old friend Eric. Eric and his gang have planned to raid the only bank in the city which is open on Bastille day. After offering his services, Zed soon finds himself trapped in a situation beyond his control when heroin abuse, poor planning and a call-girl named Zoe all conspire to turn the robbery into a very bloody siege.

An elderly ex-serviceman and widower looks to avenge his best friend's murder by doling out his own form of justice.

While on a prison furlough, a lowly criminal evades his guards and returns to his old stomping ground to take revenge on the people who turned him into a cold blooded killer.

A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.

Wes Block is a detective who's put on the case of a serial killer whose victims are young and pretty women. The murders are getting personal when the killer chooses victims who are acquaintances of Block. Even his daughters are threatened.

Ten years after ratting on his old mobster friends in exchange for personal immunity, two hit men drive a hardened criminal to Paris for his execution. However, while on the way, whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.

When her husband goes missing during their Caribbean vacation, a woman sets off on her own to take down the men she thinks are responsible.

A man takes over a TV station and holds a number of hostages as a political platform to awaken humanity, instead of money.

A frustrated man decides to take justice into his own hands after a plea bargain sets one of his family's killers free. He targets not only the killer but also the district attorney and others involved in the deal.

A hit man named Kai flies into Bangkok, gets a gun, and orders a cab. He offers a professional female driver big money to be his all-night driver. But when she realizes Kai is committing brutal murders at each stop, it's too late to walk away. Meanwhile, an offbeat police detective races to decode the string of slayings before more blood is spilled.

Newspaper reporter Michael Ward plunges into a nightmare of guilt, fearing that his "evidence" has sentenced the wrong man to death.

Mother Holly McCord is driven to extremes to save the life of her young son. Even if it means hauling black market drugs in her souped-up truck, with the Feds in hot pursuit. With two bounties on her head and her son’s life on the line, Holly climbs behind the wheel of “Night Train,” ready to outrun, out gun, and outlast them all.

A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.

Four boyhood friends return to New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina, to find their home decimated and prospects for work swept away. Turning to a local gangster for employment, the crew is hired to pull off a daring casino heist, right in the heart of the city.

A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.

Anthony Stowe is a dirty cop who is hooked on heroin—and everyone hates him. After a serious accident, he is placed into an induced coma, but emerges from it a better person who wants to put things right.

During a police strike in Nova Scotia's capital city, a gang of hoodlums end up unintentionally causing the owner of a gay bar to be killed. This escalates into a string of murders with a lone survivor trying to not be next.

Set in the dark and old Parramatta prison built by the original convicts our lead character Ray a war veteran finds himself serving 18 months for manslaughter after defending his fiance. He soon realizes that the prison boss has it in for him and does everything possible to break Ray even going after his fiance.
Similar titles

A law student's theory about the recent deaths of two Supreme Court justices embroils her in a far-reaching web of murder, corruption, and greed.

A rag-tag team of Reno cops are called in to save the day after a terrorist attack disrupts a national police convention in Miami Beach during spring break. Based on the Comedy Central series.

Based on the known events that shook the United States for 23 days in 2002. Within 24 hours six people were killed by a sniper in Maryland County. A man and his son get overlooked in all settings where shootings occur. The police, in cooperation with the FBI follows the wrong track of a white van, while the murderers act with impunity and panic seizes the population

In 1429, a French teenager stood before her King with a message she claimed came from God; that she would defeat the world's greatest army and liberate her country from its political and religious turmoil. As she reclaims God's diminished kingdom, this courageous young woman has various amazing victories until her violent and untimely death.

A cynical NYPD domestic violence officer ends up falling in love with a woman running away from her obsessive and abusive husband.

A San Antonio, Texas policeman must stop his best friend, a fellow officer turned vigilante.

A confident young cop is shown the ropes by a veteran partner in the dangerous gang-controlled barrios of Los Angeles, where the gang culture is enforced by the colors the members wear.

Con artist Lawrence Jamieson is a longtime resident of a luxurious coastal resort, where he enjoys the lavish fruits of his deceptions -- that is, until a competitor, Freddy Benson, shows up. When the new guy's lowbrow tactics impinge on his own sophisticated work and believing him to be the infamous conman 'The Jackal', Lawrence resolves to get rid of him. Confident of his own duplicitous talents, he challenges Freddy to a winner-takes-all competition: whoever swindles their latest mark, American heiress Janet Colgate, out of $50,000 first can stay, while the other must leave town.

During the Vietnam War, a soldier finds himself the outsider of his own squad when they unnecessarily kidnap a female villager.

In 1970s Rome, a casual encounter between Enea and Pietro at a movie theater turns into an unforgettable romance — until destiny pulls them apart.

Sophia Pinsky seems like a functioning adult. But when she loses her girlfriend and her grandfather in the same day and moves back in with her authoritarian Russian grandmother, Marina, everything she thought she’d escaped is waiting to welcome her back with open arms. Thrilled to have Sophia under her influence again, and obsessed with finding her a proper (male) partner, Marina conspires to marry her off to Trevor, a nice Jewish boy Sophia has known since they were in diapers. After the date with him is a dud, Sophia finds her way to a weekly open mic night, where on a whim she gets on stage and discovers there’s actually an audience for her Queer-Russian-Jewish-American sense of humor. Everything comes to a head at the family Shabbat dinner when Sophia and Trevor try to humiliate Marina by pretending to have fallen for each other, unaware that Marina is planning her own announcement.

For centuries, a secret Order of priests has existed within the Church. A renegade priest, Father Alex Bernier, is sent to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of one of the Order's most revered members. Following a series of strangely similar killings, Bernier launches an investigation that forces him to confront unimaginable evil.

Struggling single mother Annie Laird impulsively agrees to serve on a jury, hoping for a little excitement in her humdrum life. But she gets far more than she bargained for when she's forced to sacrifice the truth to save her son from the mob's seductive, psychotic enforcer.

A former government operative renowned for his stealth, Jack Cole is now a Los Angeles police detective. When a series of horrible murders occurs in the metro area, Cole is assigned to the case, along with tough-talking fellow cop Jim Campbell. Although the two men clash, they gradually become effective partners as they uncover a conspiracy linked to the killings, which also involves terrorism and organized crime.

Rachel Carson, a best-selling crime novelist, is devastated and filled with guilt over the accidental death of her son. Hoping that a change of scenery will help alleviate her suffering, she leaves her home in the city and moves into a vacant country house owned by a friend and begins a relationship with charming local Angus. But, just as her life is taking a turn for the better, Rachel realizes she's being romanced by a ghost, leading her to doubt her own sanity.

A young man receives an emergency phone call on his cell phone from an older woman. She claims to have been kidnapped – and the kidnappers have targeted her husband and child next.

A married man calls the wrong number for phone-sex and winds up being stalked by a psychotic man.

Inside a drab middle school in 1992, a sexually-confused eighth-grader attempts to regain his dignity after being bullied by a sex-obsessed 'cool kid' whom he privately fantasizes about.

A young man discovers an infidelity and kills his wife. He was in love with this girl and had married her to get her out of a correctional institute.

A gay high school student throws a swinging prom party in the hopes of finally wooing the football captain - but when popular kids start turning up dead, the partygoers discover a slasher killer amongst the student body!