Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Robert J. Maxwell This production seems to get tepid reviews but it deserves a bit better than that. Tracy is a recovering alcoholic who returns to criminal law to defend the neighbors' son.A nice cast, with many familiar faces, and Tracy delivers in his own quietly flabby and unpretentious way. His character finds the trial difficult. Lying witnesses work against him. He begins to forget lines and behaves clumsily in front of the court. He takes a couple of belts. He bribes a witness. Things fall apart; the center can't hold.Then he makes a final, self-sacrificial attempt to redeem himself and save the defendant whom he knows to be innocent.It's well photographed too, sly and dark, and Sturges' direction is efficient and to the point.It's rather a good film. Courtroom dramas have to be really BAD to be bad. This one isn't bad.

thinker1691 After a successful career as a D. A, James P. Curtayne (Spencer Tracy) decides to forgo civil law and accept a homicide criminal case involving an old time family friend. Det. Vincent Ricks (Pat O'Brien) a police detective and friend advises him as does his daughter Virginia (Diana Lynn) not to do it as does his heart and former bout with alcoholism. Still Johnny O'Hara (James Arness) needs his established reputation to save him from prison. The story is fraught with dangers which involve the local mob as well as Curtayne's inability to deal with his return to drinking as the case tests his ethics. For Tracy this is a remarkable film as one sees the sober lawyer deal with an inability to deal with his weaknesses. This remarkable B/W film is designed to entertain and highlight Tracy's unique talent. A great movie and one easily recommended to Tracy fans. Although not credited, you can see a very young Charles Bronson making an appearance. ****

dbdumonteil but is it a good pattern?I have my doubts.The -of course alcoholic-retired lawyer who redeems his name and his soul by saving an innocent will be the center character of so many courtroom movies that they it's impossible to count them all.Anyway,in "les inconnus dans la maison" ,a French movie of 1941,Raimu had a similar part with desperate case,daughter et al:this Henry Decoin movie was a detective story,from a good George Simenon book.John Sturges's film would rather fall into the film noir category,complete with gangsters , bribes and false evidences .But his treatment verges on faux melodrama (the sobbing parents,the phone call when Tracy asks his daughter's squeeze to marry her,and of course the "moving" finale).the plot is never exciting,being muddled,complicated and mushy (see Johnny's attitude towards his girlfriend:it's worthy of the old folk song "the long black veil" when it lays claim to realism!The judge said "son,what's your alibi/if you were somewhere else/then you won't have to die;we really feel like screaming these lines to the fair knight Johnny)No suspense either.Maybe if we had any doubts about Johnny's innocence ,we could get some chills.The actor's performance is listless -one does not believe his risks his neck-and frankly,Spencer Tracy's is not that much mind-boggling either.

David (Handlinghandel) This character and the film's ambiance seem closer to what is written about Tracy's life than anything else he ever made.(His "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde" was dark -- Ingrid Bergman is sensational in it. But his switch from good to bad is so tacky it's literally laughable -- though not his fault.)The last line of this dark movie is one of the bleakest in movie history. Listen for it.In many ways he plays a character similar to the title role in "Father of the Bride," made around the same time. Everyone in that movie boozed it up, but that was thought natural and/or comical. Here is a sad semi-reformed alcoholic with a guilty conscience.The only real flaw is the Jay C. Flippen character with the ludicrous Scandinavian accent used. The rest is a great noir.