The Judge

This is a freakish movie, and it plays a bit like the old radio series "The Whistler."

(Remember that one? "I am the Whistler -- and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak.")

In this case, instead of The Whistler, we have "The Judge," who opens up his file cabinet of past cases, narrates some opening psychobabble about human minds, and lets us witness first hand the sordid horrors of human psychiatric neurosis, complete with a woozy flashback scene, more casual gun-handling than i have seen outside of a Western, and an acapella choir that sounds like it swallowed a theramin.

And what about Milburn Stone? Wow! Doc Adams on TV's "Gunsmoke" surely deserves kudos for playing firmly against type here. as a man so unexpectedly motivated that to say anything more about his intentions would be to ruin the experience of watching the looks on his face shift with almost every line he delivers.

If this had been a pilot for a very weird short-run TV series, it would have become a cult classic. As it is, it is just straight-out bizarre.

By the way, i'll bet you dollars to donuts that the dog in the opening scenes was trained by Frank Inn, uncredited. It's a larger "Benji" type terrier-shaggy cross, and the stunt is set up exactly like all of Inn's best work with Higgins and his other dogs: The dog has a whole routine or scene memorized, and pulls it off in a nice, long take without ever once looking at the trainer for instructions. Good job, Anonymous Dog! Good job, Frank Inn!

Yikes! As is typical with Alpha Video releases, the DVD copy for this one is pretty awful. It's very fuzzy and the sound very poor due to a loud hiss. While I am thrilled that Alpha brings out many B-movies which would otherwise never come out on DVD, the discs have never been restored in any way and it looks and sounds that way.

Milburn Stone plays Martin Strang--a lawyer famous for defending some high-profile murderers. One day he realizes that his wife is cheating on him and concocts a complicated plan. However, Strang is clever and is willing to take his time with this one.

One day, William Jackson (Paul Guilfoyle) kills a cop and is up on murder charges. Surprisingly, Strang volunteers to take the case free of charge even though it seems like a sure loser. However, there is a catch--the obviously guilty man will pay for the service by doing Strang a favor. After getting an acquittal on a technicality, Strang announces the favor. What that favor is and how it relates to the wife is something you'll need to say for yourself.

Now all this probably sounds great, right? Well that's the problem. While the set up was good, the payoff was not. Even worse, much of the ending needed to be explained by the narrator!! Instead of a dandy ending came talking, talking and more talking both before and after this exposition. In addition, during much of this you hear one of the most annoying soundtracks in history--with a chorus blaring out 'oooooooooooooo' for what seems like an eternity! Overall, the longer I watched, the less I enjoyed the film. A film that had SOME good ideas but which was horribly written and cheap. Very disappointing.

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?

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.