My Son Is Guilty

From the magic year in films, 1939, except the fairy dust didn't land on this movie.

My Son is Guilty is a B film starring Harry Carey as Tim Kerry, a 61-year-old cop still walking a beat in Hell's Kitchen. It didn't look like Hells Kitchen, and people seemed to walk aimlessly up and down the street.

Kerry's son Ritzy (Bruce Cabot) is released from prison after a two-year stint. He promises his dad he's going straight, but he's lying. One problem might stem from naming him Ritzy.

Ritzy joins a gang planning a heist. Since he's a radio expert, they suggest he talk to his dad about working the police calls at the department so he can delay the all cars notification when the robbery occurs. Most police departments definitely want an ex-con handling this so they hire him.

Twenty-three year old Glenn Ford plays a neighborhood kid in competition with Ritzy for the affections of Julie Bishop.

Despite a fine cast, not a good movie.

Look for Edgar Buchanan in a small role as a bartender.

Harry Carey is the cop on the beat in Hell's Kitchen. It's a tough neighborhood, but it's home. His son, Bruce Cabot is coming home.... from prison. Carey thinks he can help him go straight, and so does young Julie Bishop. But he's a smart guy, tempered by two years in prison, and he gets involved in a scheme to rob a payroll. He might have gotten away with it, but a cop died in the stickup, and the police have him followed.

It's an interesting thesis for a cheap Columbia second feature, with some nice fillips. Glenn Ford plays a plainclothes detective in his third movie, and there are plenty of well-remembered supporting actors, like Wynne Gibson, Don Beddoe, Bruce Bennett and Edgar Buchanan. The Nicholas Brothers have a specialty number. It's not one of their eye-popping performances, but as always, it's good to see them.

If the movie lacks something, it's a focus. Are we following Carey, Cabot, Miss Bishop, or Ford? At various times, each of them looks to be taking front and center, and then it's over to someone else. Sll, it's good to se them working, particularly Carey.

It's Hell's Kitchen. Tim Kerry (Harry Carey) is an honest cop trying to do good in the neighborhood while watching out for the bad apples. His son Ritzy (Bruce Cabot) is getting released after two years in prison. It's hard to stay on the straight and narrow.

This story would be more compelling if Ritzy is younger. He's in his mid-30's. He is who he is by this point. If he's a twenty year old, he would have his whole future ahead of him. It would be a more dire struggle to save the boy. As it is, I'm surprised that he is still coming home to his pop. I'm just not that into him and I stop caring about his drama. There is an early twenty-something Glenn Ford. He would be a better Ritzy.

I have had fun reviewing a number of films here at IMDb and I try to stay consistent in what I look for or take note of in evaluating a picture. I find that reviewing a film adds a deeper appreciation for the film. I enjoy all motion pictures, from the finer tried and true greats and classics to lesser ones, including B-pictures like "My Son Is Guilty." I rarely bother to offer thoughts on the great films, or even most of the class-A features, as usually many --if not dozens-- of reviews have already been offered on them.

My overall enjoyment from viewing a film is what I am looking for when evaluating, or reviewing, a film. It really comes down to assigning a value as to how much I "enjoyed" the viewing. Yes, I may expect just a little more (or maybe considerably more) polish and sophistication from a big studio, high-budget picture with valued star players than I do from a smaller B-picture, but as far as enjoyment is concerned, I can get just about as much enjoyment from a B-picture as I can from an A-picture.

"My Son Is Guilty" is a good case in point. Sure, it is obvious from the production values and editing that it was made on a lower budget, but I absolutely and thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated this little film. I loved the sets and the players and the economical pacing. The story was indeed fanciful, what with Harry Carey being so singularly naive, but it is easy to get wrapped up in the program and all the disruption and reactions that the return to town of the bad son engendered. Bruce Cabot played the unredeemable son smoothly and convincingly. Seemingly many raters of this film have given it five stars, and some even fewer, but I happily give it seven because I got a lot of enjoyment from watching it.

I don't think that My Son Is Guilty would have been in any Oscar contention had it been released intact. But the editing department thoroughly butchered this film into incoherency. My Son Is Guilty was also Glenn Ford's debut film for Columbia Pictures, but fortunately for his career he wasn't the star.

Harry Carey stars in this film as your kindly neighborhood Irish cop in Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan. His bad seed of a son Bruce Cabot is getting out of jail after a 2 year rap.

Carey thinks a little kindness will reform him. But Cabot's got no such notions of turning straight. But he does let his father use his influence to get him a job in the police radio room where at a propitious moment the radios go bad when a gang Cabot is working with pull a large payroll holdup where a cop is killed.

Glenn Ford plays a friend from the neighborhood and rival to Cabot for Julie Bishop. Later on Cabot kills Glenn Ford's mother when she recognizes the fugitive.

The idea of any police department employing Cabot with a rapsheet in a police command center really boggles the mind. I was speechless at the mere concept.

My Son Is Guilty was also the first time that Glenn Ford worked with Edgar Buchanan whom he became great friends with and always tried to use in his films. Buchanan plays a bartender here.

Best performance in the film is that of Wynne Gibson as the widow of the former head of the gang Cabot works with and she's tough, smart, and beautiful. Too bad her performance was wasted in this film.

Glenn Ford made his feature film debut in Heaven With A Barbed Wire Fence the same year for 20th Century Fox. But Darryl Zanuck passed on signing him so Ford got a contract with Columbia. He'd have to work his way up in quality of pictures so My Son Is Guilty would be the start of quite a climb.