The Unknown Man

Prominent attorney Walter Pidgeon takes a murder case pro bono, wins an acquittal and discovers that his client (Keefe Braselle) was not only guilty but part of an extortion ring reaching to the highest eschelons of the city. Panged by his own complicity, he undertakes an investigation, stumbles onto the identity of the "unknown man" who heads the syndicate, and murders him.

The ironies engage when Braselle is charged with this second murder and Pidgeon must defend him by pointing to the existence of another "unknown man" -- himself. Though somewhat short of urban grit and long on rhetoric, the Unknown Man belongs to the noir cycle less by style or structure than by its acknowledgement of the pervasive corruption of American municipal politics that came to light in the postwar years.

Though there are a few flaws in the creation of this film they are glossed over by the powerful performances in The Unknown Man, particularly by it's star Walter Pidgeon.

Pidgeon plays a top attorney, a kind of Louis D. Brandeis who takes great pride in loving the law for its own sake. I've met a couple of attorneys like this in my life and they do exist. Some even wind up on the Supreme Court, like Brandeis.

Pidgeon is like Brandeis, a lawyer who specializes in civil practice. He's both respected and successful. When Philip Ober comes to him and asks Pidgeon to take on a criminal case to save an innocent man's life, Pidgeon agrees.

His client is young Keefe Brasselle arrested in the murder of a young locksmith. Pidgeon gets him off. But later we find out he did the deed and furthermore Brasselle is a young punk who extorts money for organized crime.

That sets in motion a chain of events which Pidgeon pushes that in the end bring about a certain cosmic justice which corrects the mistake that man's justice made. I think if Louis Brandeis had gotten himself involved in a cosmic jackpot the way Pidgeon does it would come out the same.

There are also some nice performances by wife Ann Harding, District Attorney Barry Sullivan who narrates the film in flashback, Eduard Franz the head of the Crime Commission, Lewis Stone as (what else) the Judge, and the original victim's father Konstantin Shayne. There are indeed more than one victim before things are righted.

Walter Pidgeon is the type of man they DON'T make lawyer jokes about, they give them awards. Nicely cast and nicely done film.

MGM made some excellent film noir. People are surprised but it turned out some excellent and very dark ones, notably "The People Against O'Hara." This bears certain plot similarities to that Spencer Tracy movie. However, it is unfortunately not a very good MGM noir.

Walter Pigeon, not one of my favorite actors, turns in a decent performance. Ann Harding, who could be exasperatingly grand in her 1930s RKO starring vehicles, has a small part as his wife. She's fine, though.

Keefe Brasselle as the young hotshot Pigeon defends is not up to the task. He doesn't ring remotely true as a sleazy kid on the take for whatever he can get and loving what he does get.

Barry Sullivan is one of the staples of the best of noir, however, and he is in his usual fine form as the district attorney who goes up against Pigeon in court. The movie, which seems to have needed it, has a voice-over narration by Sullivan. (I say it may have needed it because he speaks right over characters we see moving their mouths and acting out scenes.) It's rather predictable. Pigeon's Biblical recitation is interesting and casts the movie in a light that suggests it could have been much better than it is.

An excellent film on all counts, and especially on the side of the script. The little I have seen of Walter Pidgeon has convinced me that this man must have been in his time a great and imposing actor ! You are kept on tenterhooks throughout the film right up till the end. In addition, Pidgeon's voice was magnificent and deep, you just don't hear voices like that now. Unfortunately not available on video anywhere like so many of the great old films. Let us hope this situation will be remedied in the coming years !

Hopelessly hamstrung by the requirements of the Production Code, The Unknown Man is a rather nasty piece of filmmaking, when you come down to it. Walter Pidgeon is fine as the defense lawyer who mistakenly frees a young killer, played with fresh faced ineptitude by Keefe Braselle, but the machinations set into motion by Pidgeon's fatal encounter with the slimy Crime Commission bigwig, played brilliantly by Eduard Franz, are hopelessly unrealistic. That leads some to conclude this is an entry in the noir cycle, but it plays more like a police procedural, with police captain Barry Sullivan successfully sniffing out the truth. Besides Franz and Pidgeon, the acting highlights are provided by Konstantin Shayne as an elderly shopkeeper victimized by shakedown men. Ultimately, though, The Unknown Man is a lesson in Old Testament justice, with murderers and their victims filling in as Sunday School sermon illustrations. If you can get over the moralizing, however, this is a decent minor picture.