The Judge

And also his last.... Yes, this scheme reminded me SO DARK THE NIGHT, where Steven Geray was a detective investigating on his own crime, the crime he commited himself. The story is not the same but the overall feeling for the audiences, who discover something unusual, different, is nearly the same. That's precisely what's interesting here, no cliché, nothing predictable. With Fritz Lang's BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT, the overall feeling for the audience is also close to this one; some court story so thrilling, exciting, because never seen before. Awesome ending too, to close a flat, bland director's career. Except his silent features. He died in anonymity.

...or: Well, that explains that.

In the exhibitor's press book issued with this film, there is a half-page, two-column story under this headline: Balance of Symbolism and Reality Is Important Facet of "The Judge" There we learn..."the delicate balance between symbolism and reality is one of the most interesting features of 'The Judge." While symbolism is used freely throughout, it infiltrates, rather than intrudes itself upon the consciousness of the audience. Instead of becoming an object in itself, a showcase for trick camera angles and self-conscious dramatic shots, the symbolism in 'The Judge' is worked in gently, a subtle shading to intensify the characters and action it supports. While the effectiveness of symbolism is exploited, it is made to keep its place in the anatomy of the picture."

(Thank goodness for small favors.)

"...Wiliam Jackson (Paul Guilfoyle), a little guy who is pushed around, is first seen in the uncompromising sunlight of a middle-class park, against the sculptured background of struggling figures at the base of a statue. He is trapped in the wire cage of a tennis court, and tried against the bleak bareness of a courtroom. All these backgrounds build unobtrusively toward making his actions in the contrasting Apartment 29 natural and even inevitable. They are an unspoken comment on, and explanation of, his character."

(A nerd is a nerd is a nerd)

"PROPS REVEAL CHARACTER: The office of Dr. James Anderson (Stanley Waxman), with its neat files and carefully cataloged data on human emotions, its stern furniture and well-ordered arrangement, portray the cold mind of the psychiatrist. Lucille Strang (Katherine deMille) is seen against a haughty background that shows the deft, impersonal hand of a professional interior decorator, artistically lovely but without warmth, showing she has spent money but no love upon it---pointing up her brittle and unsentimental character."

(Some of us clods just thought the dame had swell taste.)

"The props, too, speak their piece. Inanimate objects become characters in the story---Jackson's tinkle-toy that is crushed by the foot of an unheeding ruffian---the wire-recorder in Anderson's office that taunts Tilton (Norman Budd)---the gun that Strang steals from Anderson."

This course in fundamental symbolism ends rather abruptly right there, as if the printer had had all he could take, and just inserted a still of the scowling, bow tie-wearing Paul Guilfoyle in place of setting the type for a third column. Too bad. Perhaps the third column explained just exactly what a tinkle-toy was. Maybe it was a bedpan constructed out of tinker-toys from an Erector Set.

Did the writers explain all this to director Elmer Clifton?

At first I thought this was a sleeper in the making. Those early scenes of lunatic Tilton (Budd) are grabbers, especially when he challenges Code by shooting a crippled boy and his dog! Moreover, his contrast with ice cold lawyer Strang (Stone) sets up real character color. So it's no surprise when we find out about Strang's utter lack of legal ethics. But inside the cold exterior, the lawyer's suffering pangs of conscience over the rogues he's gotten off. At the same time, his arrogant wife is two-timing him with his associate, the county doctor, of all people. Thus, despite his rigid demeanor, Strang's not altogether unsympathetic nor unconflicted. Also, director Clifton heightens this first half with some imaginative camera angles and close-ups suggesting a world where anything might happen.

Trouble is the second half bogs down in a lot of talk minus the earlier visual novelties. Though loaded with potential tension, the Russian roulette scene goes on too long and is drained by too much exposition, resulting in an action climax largely wasted. Then too, Strang's motivations behind his murder scheme are muddied up with all the talk that's not helped by an abrupt dream sequence. In short, the promising early part is undone by a awkward latter part. All in all, the movie raises interesting ideas but fails to effectively develop them.

(In passing—For fans of TV's Gunsmoke (1955-1975), it's enlightening to catch actor Stone playing a role opposite to his avuncular Doc Adams in TV's longest running western. However, if he smiled even once as lawyer Strang, I missed it. Anyway, a salute to that fine actor.)

One of the last films directed by the great Elmer Clifton, whose career dates back to the mid-teens and D.W.Griffith, The Judge was also the first production of Ida Lupino's production company, first called Emerald Productions, later called The Filmmakers.

This is a quirky film which is both hard-boiled and pretentious, raw and artsy. It is also a film that raises as many questions as it answers. Elements are introduced into the story, covered in detail, and then not developed. Dream sequences are introduced, but are unclear. The main character--who is a sleazy defense attorney, NOT a judge--is well-played by Milburn Stone, but his story is not really typical of anyone other than this one oddball character. Why the film is called THE JUDGE, I don't know. The show begins and ends with a judge pulling out a file from his file cabinet, and talking about what a unique and disturbing case this was. The same judge does rule on an important case in the film, but he is not central--one wonders why the film is not called THE DEFENSE ATTORNEY? While star Milburn Stone and some of the supporting actors give good performances, the doctor and Stone's wife are both amateurishly played. Also, no scored instrumental music is feature in the film: only avant-garde acapella choral music, and the wire recording of the violin practicing that is used to get the psycho killer to grab a gun, which is used later as supporting music. This gives the film an art-film feel. A few scenes were unclear and required me to rewind the tape and watch them two or three times. The scene where the guy selling the dolls picks someone's pocket--the guy who later kills a policeman and is blackmailed by Stone--was unclear. Where was that gun coming from? Is this sloppy continuity, or an attempt at being ambiguous? Who knows... When the film ends, somewhat abruptly I might add, the viewer will probably have a number of questions as we did. However, whatever minor flaws I may complain about, The Judge is a unique film experience. Not entirely successful, but unique nonetheless.

I can't say too much about this film, "The Judge" from 1949. I saw a horrendous print, and I admit I found the story strange.

The movie stars Milburn Stone of Gunsmoke fame. I only know him from Gunsmoke, and I doubt I saw one episode all the way through. He plays attorney Martin Strang, known for taking high-profile cases and winning.

When he learns his wife is cheating on him, he comes up with a way to exact revenge. He approaches a cop killer, William Jackson (Paul Guilfoyle) and takes his case pro bono. However, he exacts a promise from Jackson, if he gets him off, he will ask for a favor in return.

Strang uses a loophole in the law so that Jackson's case is dismissed - temporarily. Jackson will not be indicted for killing a member of law enforcement, but he will be going down for murder. Before Jackson actually realizes this, Strang calls in the favor.

The rest was ridiculous and in fact, as is usual with a lousy script, the narrator had to explain the whole thing at the end. The only interesting thing to me was that the actor Stanley Waxman, who played Mrs. Strang's love interest, looked like Tyrone Power from a distance. The shape of the face, the hairline, the eyebrows. Up close he didn't look like him at all.

I am working off of a list of noirs. I have seen all of the famous ones. The rest of them have been a little disappointing. This was one.