Cards on the table, I have a measure of personal distaste for celebrated theatre and movie director Elia Kazan, down to his personal conduct during the infamous Hollywood Blacklist hearings of the late 40s and early 50s but I can't deny his film-making ability in this fine courtroom drama feature.
On trial for his life is a down-on-his-luck Army veteran Arthur Kennedy for the alleged brutal murder in public of a popular parish priest in Connecticut. When, however, the local police, led by the bullish Lee J Cobb, can't solve the case, politics unsurprisingly gets involved as pressure from self-interested local politicians is brought to bear on Cobb and his team to produce the perpetrator, it being an election year and all.
Deep in the mix is State Prosecuting Attorney Dana Andrews, who at first joins the clamour to get almost any conviction it seems in what has become not only the major local news item but has also put law and order as the main issue in the upcoming election. Cobb initially resists the pressure from above, but finally after two weeks of nothing picks up Kennedy, who matches the vague description of the gunman, left town coincidentally after the killing and whose gun apparently shot the bullets. He sweats Kennedy for two days, employing now-familiar rendition-type methods, just about stopping short of water-boarding his man to extract the damning confession which will surely seal his fate and make everyone else happy. But good, clean public servant that he is, Andrews, after interviewing Kennedy himself and reviewing the evidence, has his doubts...
Based on a real-life case in the same state twenty years before, it's filmed very much in docu-drama style with a booming voiceover periodically setting the scene, using, where allowed, actual locations for some of the scenes and is altogether directed and acted in a naturalistic black and white shooting-style. Some of the depicted background situations however do weaken the attempts at veracity, particularly the contrived evidence of the main female witness, a vindictive floozy-type local cafe owner who turns out to have been spurned by the suspect during his stay in town and as a result is seemingly quite prepared to have him executed, the introduction of a crooked politician fearing exposure who tries to blackmail Andrews through a business connection with his innocent wife into securing a conviction and last but not least, the handy insertion of a shifty looking individual in the public gallery with a guilty look so palpable, he might as well be wearing convict stripes. There's also the rather cliched use of investigative reporters, one of whom conveniently helps set up the big reveal in court and unintentional comedy when we see the police ridiculously rounding up in Keystone Cops fashion anyone walking the street wearing a dark coat and light hat similar to the alleged killer.
All this enables Kazan to conveniently tie up with a bang all the loose ends in an over-dramatic courtroom conclusion which belies the fact that the original case was never actually solved. That said, while he does over-egg the pudding with the above named contrivances and seems to sacrifice truth for melodrama in the last third, it's still for the most part a taut and entertaining watch with fine acting by Andrews and Cobb, well supported by Kennedy and Jane Wyatt as Andrews' supportive wife. Commendably exposing some of the dubious methods police arguably still use to get a crime off their books, it's a notable early entry in the long career of a director who might have learned something about bravery, honour and doing the right thing from his lead character here.
On trial for his life is a down-on-his-luck Army veteran Arthur Kennedy for the alleged brutal murder in public of a popular parish priest in Connecticut. When, however, the local police, led by the bullish Lee J Cobb, can't solve the case, politics unsurprisingly gets involved as pressure from self-interested local politicians is brought to bear on Cobb and his team to produce the perpetrator, it being an election year and all.
Deep in the mix is State Prosecuting Attorney Dana Andrews, who at first joins the clamour to get almost any conviction it seems in what has become not only the major local news item but has also put law and order as the main issue in the upcoming election. Cobb initially resists the pressure from above, but finally after two weeks of nothing picks up Kennedy, who matches the vague description of the gunman, left town coincidentally after the killing and whose gun apparently shot the bullets. He sweats Kennedy for two days, employing now-familiar rendition-type methods, just about stopping short of water-boarding his man to extract the damning confession which will surely seal his fate and make everyone else happy. But good, clean public servant that he is, Andrews, after interviewing Kennedy himself and reviewing the evidence, has his doubts...
Based on a real-life case in the same state twenty years before, it's filmed very much in docu-drama style with a booming voiceover periodically setting the scene, using, where allowed, actual locations for some of the scenes and is altogether directed and acted in a naturalistic black and white shooting-style. Some of the depicted background situations however do weaken the attempts at veracity, particularly the contrived evidence of the main female witness, a vindictive floozy-type local cafe owner who turns out to have been spurned by the suspect during his stay in town and as a result is seemingly quite prepared to have him executed, the introduction of a crooked politician fearing exposure who tries to blackmail Andrews through a business connection with his innocent wife into securing a conviction and last but not least, the handy insertion of a shifty looking individual in the public gallery with a guilty look so palpable, he might as well be wearing convict stripes. There's also the rather cliched use of investigative reporters, one of whom conveniently helps set up the big reveal in court and unintentional comedy when we see the police ridiculously rounding up in Keystone Cops fashion anyone walking the street wearing a dark coat and light hat similar to the alleged killer.
All this enables Kazan to conveniently tie up with a bang all the loose ends in an over-dramatic courtroom conclusion which belies the fact that the original case was never actually solved. That said, while he does over-egg the pudding with the above named contrivances and seems to sacrifice truth for melodrama in the last third, it's still for the most part a taut and entertaining watch with fine acting by Andrews and Cobb, well supported by Kennedy and Jane Wyatt as Andrews' supportive wife. Commendably exposing some of the dubious methods police arguably still use to get a crime off their books, it's a notable early entry in the long career of a director who might have learned something about bravery, honour and doing the right thing from his lead character here.