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Criminal Court
1946 |
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Released in November, 1946, CRIMINAL COURT was Wise's fifth feature for RKO and his first to include musical numbers.
It was Wise's editing experience which also gave him an even better sense of filmmaking economy: "When I was a film editor and after, we considered a normal film about one hour and a half maximum. If you got a first cut that came in at about one hour forty-five minutes, you would worry that it was going to be too long...."* To current filmgoers it is hard to believe that in 1946 you got to watch gangsters, lawyers, murder, political corruption and a couple of musical numbers in only 62 minutes! |
Criminal attorney Steve Barnes
has made a name for
himself with his clever courtroom tactics and dedication to
justice. After Steve,
who is running for district attorney on a "clean government"
platform, exposes
Bob J. "Brownie" Brown, a phony eyewitness in a gangland murder
case, as a
perjurer, he is contacted by Brownie's boss, gangster and nightclub
owner Vic
Wright. Wright, with whom Steve's girl friend, singer
Georgia Gale, has just
gotten a job, has learned that Steve owns motion pictures showing
 members of
his gang, including his brother Frankie, bribing various public
officials.
Acting on orders from his superior, Marquette, to stop Steve
at any cost,
Wright offers the lawyer a $50,000 campaign "contribution" in
exchange for
the motion picture negatives. After Steve refuses the
bribe, Wright tells
him that he has damaging information about him and demands that
he not screen
the movies for his supporters. Despite Wright's threats,
Steve shows the
pictures that night at his campaign headquarters, but slips
away while they
are being projected to confront Wright. Before Steve arrives,
Steve's
secretary, Joan Mason, consults with Wright in his nightclub
office. Joan,
who is acting as a spy for Wright, agrees to track down the
motion picture
negatives and then leaves the office through one door just as
Steve comes in
by another. Unaware that Joan is eavesdropping on their
conversation, Steve
laughs off Wright's attempts to scare him with a phony jury
tampering
confession and slugs the gangster. Infuriated, Wright
goes for a gun hidden
in a wall panel and threatens Steve with it. During the
subsequent struggle,
the gun falls and accidentally shoots and kills Wright.
Steve returns to his
headquarters without calling the police and thereby inadvertently
sets up
Georgia, who had an appointment with Wright, to be caught by
Frankie with the
murder weapon in her hand. After a terrified Georgia flees
the scene and is
arrested, Steve confesses his part in the case. The district
attorney,
however, is sure that Steve is lying and indicts Georgia on
murder charges.
Marquette, meanwhile, has ordered Joan not to reveal herself
as an eyewitness
and has flunky Joe West offer Steve her testimony in exchange
for the motion
picture negatives. When Georgia deduces that Steve is
about to sacrifice his
campaign for her freedom, she insists that he pursue the case
honestly. The
unsuspecting Steve then asks Joan to hire an investigator to
track down
West's "eyewitness," and the guilt-ridden secretary inadvertently
reveals a
fact about the case that only an eyewitness could know.
During Georgia's
trial, Steve suddenly realizes what Joan has done, and after
calling her as a
surprise witness, thwarts West's attempts to shoot her in court
and extracts
a confession out of her. With Georgia completely exonerated,
Steve then
proposes to his ecstatic girl friend.
From the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
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 63 min. RKO Radio Pictures;
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures;
Directed by: Robert Wise;
Produced by: Martin Mooney;
Screenplay by: Lawrence Kimble;
Edited by: Robert Swink;
Director of Photography: Frank Redman;
Music by: Paul Sawtell;
Production Design by: Albert S. D'Agostino & Lucius O. Croxton;
Sound by: Francis M. Sarver & Roy Granville;
Costumes by: Adele Balkan.
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Tom Conway (Steve Barnes), Martha O'Driscoll (Georgia
Gale),
June Clayworth (Joan Mason), Robert Armstrong (Vic
Wright), Addison
Richards (District Attorney Gordon), Pat Gleason (Joe
West), Steve
Brodie (Frankie Wright), Robert Warwick (Marquette),
Phil Warren
(Bill Brannegan), Joe Devlin (Bob J. Brownie Brown),
Lee Bonnell
(Gil Lambert), Robert Clarke (Dance director),
Nancy Saunders
(Secretary), Tom Noonan (Cab driver), Phil
Dunham
(Hankinson), Dick Rush (Wilson), Sam Ash (Jennings),
Colin
Kenny (Roberts), Homer Dickenson (Butler),
Robert Smith
(Doyle), Johnny Indrisano (Headwaiter), Tony
Barrett
(Reporter), Mike Lally (Reporter), Carl Hansen
(Reporter),
Lee Frederick (Kellogg), Harry Harvey (Judge),
Jason Robards
(Marsh), Charles Regan (Assistant district attorney),
Max Rose
(Bailiff), Jack Gordon (Second gunman), Joe
Gray (First gunman), Eddie Borden (Court clerk), Stanley
Blystone
(Bartender), Don Kerr (Page boy), Sam Flint
(Inspector Carson), Joe Bernard (Luther), and Alf Haugan
(Foreman of jury).
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