Criminal Lawyer

During much of his career, Lee Tracy played one of two basic characters...the snappy talking newspaper man or a snappy talking lawyer. This is one of his lawyer films and the part seems like it was written with him (or perhaps Warren William) in mind.

In this story, Brandon (Tracy) is a defense lawyer whose only concern seems to be winning cases. One of his biggest and most influential clients is Larkin (Eduardo Ciannelli) and he assumes he knows and understands Brandon. He thinks Brandon is evil...and is more than willing to do whatever this mobster tells him to do. This isn't exactly the case...for Brandon it's all about winning. So, when Larkin pulls some strings and gets him appointed as the Assistant District Attorney (soon to become the DA), he thinks Brandon will throw cases at Larkin's request. But Brandon takes to this job like his last...and wins case after case and his main focus is setting himself up to become the state's next governor. So, when a case comes involving Larkin as the defendant, Larkin is sure the case will be botched....and Brandon might just do it. Or, could he be willing, for the first time, to actually do something because it's the right thing?

This is a very good film and Tracy and Ciannelli make it that way. The film has two female leads...though neither is especially strong nor well written. Instead, the film is all about these two inflexible men and their date with destiny. Well worth seeing...well directed and exciting. In fact, I only saw one thing I hated in the film and that was seeing Brandon cross examining a witness and badgering her until he confesses in front of the entire court her guilt...which ONLY happens on "Perry Mason" and in movies!