Criminal Laywer (1951)

CRIMINAL LAWYER (1951)

By Ralph Santini - ***

After his tenure with RKO Radio Pictures has ended, screen legend Pat O’Brien’s career has begun to wane drastically. After all Television began dominating the home entertainment system which was definitely a bad sign for the major studios. But one of the very few movies he has done in this period is a little known and largely underrated Film Noir  B-film from Columbia Pictures called “Criminal Lawyer”. I know it contains a rather corny tone and the production values seem rather poor. So what? I think the story is nothing to laugh about, on the contrary, I find it intriguing.

I think Pat O’Brien does a good job of portraying an alcoholic lawyer James Edward Regan who contains a rotten reputation of handling his cases in a rather cheating sort of way. After handling another of those cases that were crawling with dubious tactics, Regan announces his firm colleagues that he has been nominated for a Judgeship. The bad news is that he eventually does not win the nomination and Regan goes on more and more alcoholic until his tough sidekick Moose (Mike Mazurki only the character’s last name is not Malloy; on the contrary he is cast against type this time) decides to simmer him down.

Moose meanwhile receives a call from Maggie (Jane Wyatt who still looked very good at 41) about a case concerning a nephew (Daryl Hickman) of a bar association’s secretary (Carl Benton Reid), who initially rejected granting Regan’s judgeship nomination, because the youth is charged with manslaughter and was even falsely accused of driving while intoxicated, in fact the secretary’s nephew said he only had three drinks but that was about all. So Regan decides to blackmail the jury by asking his employees to get involved in accidents themselves caused by the jury members. The blackmail is successful so the secretary’s nephew is thereby acquitted. However things don’t go right when the widow of the crash victim threatens to kill Regan calling him a murderer which shames him bitterly leading him to more depression before Moose gets caught in a murder he didn’t do concerning the death of a client’s nasty, self-absorbed brother (a riveting Douglas Fowley) and Regan his only hope for clearing him from the crime leading the film to many thrilling results.

My policy for major criticisms of a motion picture is generally the story and this film thankfully contains an effective one. I don’t think a film noir fan can go wrong with a lawyer like Pat O’Brien’s Regan and he really delivers as the title role mentioned here. And I’m not kidding, Mike Mazurki does a terrific job against type as a good guy sidekick who is willing to keep his boss out of trouble whatever the cost of his life. Jane Wyatt is also very good adding the feminine touch at 41 with also an effective performance as O’Brien’s fiercely loyal colleague. I don’t care if this film has a corny tone nor boring cliches, this B-Movie is first rate with an effective plot that might teach the justice system about how to handle people on Trial that are possibly presumed innocent. I also thought that director Seymour Friedman did tight job of handling the rest cast very well, including Douglas Fowley as a no good mobster brother one of O’Brien’s clients in the film and Robert Shayne in a no-nonsense role of a partner lawyer who does his best to help O’Brien despite very little tolerance for his tactics.

 I’d say even if you get confused at first with this film’s tone I’d say give it a second look. It’s that good.