Say what you will about "The Lost Weekend", but it's very subtle compared to this, an almost exploitive Columbia B about the dangers of drunk driving. Elisha Cook Jr. Is the son of wealthy, influential Henry Kolker, put on trial for manslaughter after the accidental death of a woman in a car crash that left her child crippled for life. Kolker's high powered attorney, Richard Dix, manages to secure an aquital, losing reporter girlfriend Joan Perry in the process.
Out of the blue, Dix campaigns to crack down on violators of the law getting away with breaking traffic laws due to unfair influence. How he goes from one extreme to the other is oddly presented, although being forced at gunpoint by the dead woman's husband to visit the bedridden daughter could explain some of it. Obvious forced elements of the script don't ring true, and the melodramatic metaphorical gavel pounding is more finger wagging than a bar invasion by Carrie Nation's gang. Considering this came just a few years after the overturning of the Volstead act, it seems to have its own agenda.
Out of the blue, Dix campaigns to crack down on violators of the law getting away with breaking traffic laws due to unfair influence. How he goes from one extreme to the other is oddly presented, although being forced at gunpoint by the dead woman's husband to visit the bedridden daughter could explain some of it. Obvious forced elements of the script don't ring true, and the melodramatic metaphorical gavel pounding is more finger wagging than a bar invasion by Carrie Nation's gang. Considering this came just a few years after the overturning of the Volstead act, it seems to have its own agenda.