Criminal Court

Director Robert Wise, near the beginning of his career, made a decent lawyer film with a good ending. There's not much suspense, and the plot device owes much to the play, "Hat, Coat and Glove"; and it is no surprise that Tom Conway was in a film re-make of that play when it was made into a movie a second time. While this might not be great noir, it is certainly a "B movie" that is easy to watch.

Tom Conway is a defense attorney running for the office of District Attorney on a platform of cleaning up corruption. This puts him at odds with mobster Robert Armstrong, who tries to blackmail into dropping his crusade. They tussle and Conway accidentally kills Armstrong. With no witnesses, he opts to sneak away, but unluckily for him, his girlfriend Martha O'Driscoll, who works in Armstrong's nightclub, discovers the body and is blamed for the murder. Conway tries to confess, but nobody believes him leaving him to defend O'Driscoll in court for a murder he committed.

Robert Wise's first foray into film noir is an extremely tight little B film (it runs a couple of minutes over an hour) with a truly ludicrous plot, but a lot of really fun moments and a good lead performance from Conway to carry you through.

"Criminal Court" proves that just because a film is a B-movie (with a small budget and brief running time) that is can STILL be a heck of a good film. Due to really good writing and acting, it works and is worth your time.

The film begins with Steve Barnes running for District Attorney (Tom Conway) on a true platform to clean up the government. He and a group of his colleagues have done a lot to investigate graft--and they've finally got the evidence to make heads roll. However, a local mobster (Robert Armstrong) is not about to let his organization be brought down without a fight. And, during a confrontation between the two men, the hood draws a gun Steve and tries to kill him. Barnes is able to get the gun away from him and when it falls, it goes off--killing the gangster! This is a bit difficult to believe, I know but stick with the film. Where it all goes next kept surprising me. Time and again, little twists came that took the film in directions I hadn't anticipated--which is rare, as B-movies are often very predictable. I would say more but just don't to spoil the film.

Other reviews have mentioned this, but Conway was George Sanders' brother. Both were incredibly erudite and spoke with a glorious accent--and brought a nice sophistication to even the simplest of roles. Exciting and worth your time--this is yet another one of Conway's B performances that elevated the material to a slightly better level.

Steve Barnes (Tom Conway) is a brilliant lawyer who is skilled at playing the court. He is running against corrupt District Attorney Gordon who is all too willing to use lies to win. He is concerned that his girlfriend Georgia Gale (Martha O'Driscoll) starts working for gangster nightclub owner Vic Wright. Steve's campaign uncovers Vic's brother Frankie doing payoffs. Vic confronts Steve. When Vic pulls out a gun, Steve fights back and kills Vic in self-defense. Steve decides to run away. Georgia finds the body and screams which brings Frankie. Immediately, Frankie accuses Georgia and she gets arrested. Steve tries telling the truth, but everybody thinks that it's one of his courtroom plays.

I love the premise. The best is when nobody believes him as he tells the truth. I do not like the ending. It is too clean and neat. It is too desperate for the Hollywood ending. It defeats the premise and the noir sensibilities of the movie. If they remake this, they definitely need to change the ending.

Tom Conway stars in Criminal Court, a 1946 B movie also starring Martha O'Driscoll, and June Clayworth.

Conway plays Steve Barnes, a lawyer with a great reputation who is going to run for DA. When his girlfriend (O'Driscoll, who in real life married big money and got out of Dodge) is accused of the murder of the gangster whose club she worked in, he defends her.

It was an accidental shooting, and he actually did it. There is an eye witness, if only he can find out who it is -- and there is a lot of resistance to him finding out.

This is a very light noir without much suspense, mildly entertaining. I always enjoy Tom Conway, and I wasn't that familiar with O'Driscoll, so I found it enjoyable.