Steve Barnes (Tom Conway) is a dapper defense attorney campaigning for the office of district attorney against incumbent DA Gordon. He's running as a reformer, and there is apparently tons to reform, with lots of city officials on the take from the mob.
Barnes has a reputation as a showboat, and early in the film you get a taste of that. While cross examining a witness on the stand who claims - falsely as coached by the mob - that he saw Barnes's client commit the crime, Barnes pretends to get angry and produces a gun like he's going to shoot the witness, just to prove that the witness was a coward and did not just stand there with nerves of steel when Barnes's client allegedly drew a gun. Forget the fact that in reality Barnes would be disbarred for such a stunt, and just appreciate he did get his client acquitted.
Then one night, Barnes and mobster Vic Wright have a confrontation in Wright's office over the evidence Barnes has collected against him. A desperate Wright pulls a gun, there's a struggle, and the gun goes off and kills Wright. Barnes, normally a smart cookie, does a not smart thing and just leaves the scene. But then his girlfriend, who is working as a singer at the club, walks in on the aftermath, picks up the gun, is seen by the dead mobster's brother, and she also does a not smart thing and leaves the scene. She's picked up later and arrested for the crime. And even though Barnes does the right thing at this point and confesses his role, nobody believes him because of his showboat reputation! Complications ensue.
Now there's some stuff I'm not telling you, but just let it suffice there's lots of neat little twists, turns, and touches in this very short but effective little B. As for the direction, it always seemed to be true of Robert Wise that if you gave him a cast of not well-known actors and a small budget, he could produce some real gems. But give him a large budget and large cast and he could be a windy bore. This is the former case.
Note Tony Barrett as one of the reporters in an uncredited role. For some reason the reporters have a "reporter's table" in the courtroom, and at first I thought Barrett was one of the mobsters with his post-war jive talk and mannerisms. He also pops up as Lawrence Tierney's first victim in the classic "Born To Kill" of the following year, also directed by Robert Wise. And what is it with the old trope of criminals thinking it's a good idea to shoot a witness who is getting ready to blow a case wide open? Whatever damage the witness does do, it can't be as bad as being caught red handed committing murder in a courtroom full of witnesses and police officers.
