The People Against O'Hara: Difference between revisions

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'''''The People Against O'Hara''''' is a 1951 American [[crime film|crime]] [[film noir]] directed by [[John Sturges]] and based on [[Eleazar Lipsky]]'s novel. The film features [[Spencer Tracy]], [[Pat O'Brien (actor)|Pat O'Brien]], [[John Hodiak]], and [[James Arness]].<ref>{{AFI film|id=50244|title=The People Against O'Hara}}.</ref>

James Curtayne ([[Spencer Tracy|Tracy]]) was once a highly successful prosecutor for the New York City district attorney, driven from his job and the high pressure field of criminal law by the bottle. After a long "vacation" he’s attempted to settle into less demanding civil law to make it to an overdue but now financially postponed retirement. Johnny O'Hara ([[James Arness|Arness]]), a boy from the old neighborhood, is accused of a murder. His parents head straight for Curtayne. Unable to pay they nonetheless beg "the counselor" to take the case. He accepts - knowing it will bea toughgo, both personally and professionally.

Johnny's boss, Bill Sheffield, was shot and robbed during the night on the stairs of his home by two people in an older coupe. The murder is seen from a distance by a man coming out of a saloon. Police trace the car to Johnny. When detectives come to question him, Johnny flees, claiming he believed they were thugs after him. During his questioning, Detective Ricks ([[Pat O'Brien|O'Brien]]) and District Attorney Barra ([[John Hodiak|Hodiak]]), reveals the murder weapon also to have been his. Johnny claims both were stolen. A young punk, Pete Korvac ([[William Campbell (film actor)|Campbell]]), is brought in. He claims he was the driver, and fingers Johnny as the trigger man.

Johnny admits he’d had a beef that day with Sheffield over some overtime pay but insists he was working all night. The night watchman refutes it. Instead, Johnny had been breathing up with his lover, Katrina ([[Yvette Duguay|Duguay]]), the young wife of a tough mobster who controls the waterfront, "Knuckles" Lanzetti ([[Eduardo Ciannelli|Ciannelli]]). Knowing what would happen to Katrina if he reveals the truth, Johnny lies to both the D.A. and his own attorney.

Curtayne, a widower, is cared for by his doting but over-protective daughter, Ginny ([[Diana Lynn|Lynn]]). She has put her own future with fiance Jeff ([[Richard Anderson]]) on hold for two years keeping her father on the wagon. Professing confidence he can handle the strain, Curtayne is forced to do his own leg work. He visits the Korvac family, who stonewall him, loudly proclaiming they have no use for the slippery Pete. Curtayne visits Knuckles, suspicious of his involvement but willing to horse-trade information upon accepting Knuckles' denials...yet unwilling to accept the mobster's offer to pull strings on his behalf.

At trial Johnny's alibi about being at work all night is shattered. Pete's chatty double-talk is convincing and Curtayne proves unable to rattle him. The counselor confides in Ricks, his old friend, that his mind is failing him, the toll of age, drink, the stakes, and a competent younger adversary he cannot better. Desperate, he turns a sip of a "short beer" into shots of straight rye. Approached in the bar by the eyewitness, a Norwegian seaman, Sven Norson ([[Jay C. Flippen|Flippen]]), with an offer to change his story, Curtayne caves to his demons and writes out a $500 personal check.

D.A. Barra discovers the bribe, but holds it [[sub rosa]], still easily winning the case. Johnny faces the electric chair and Curtayne disbarment. Sensing a frame, Ricks tips his old friend off about Johnny's involvement with Katrina, a relationship that began on the docks before World War II, before Johnny shipped out to the Pacific for the duration and she married Knuckles. Curtayne confronts her. Grief-stricken, she tells the truth in front of the D.A., willing to accept the consequences in hopes of saving her love. Johnny continues to deny being with her, but the men see through it.

Upon discovering Johnny had been set up, Curtayne, Ricks, and Barra revisit the crime, trying to tease out a motive. A tale planted by Pete about a "gold bar" the victim was carrying in an empty suitcase found in Johnny’s car again fails scrutiny; instead, lab tests reveal the battered old bag had actually been impregnated with $200,000 worth the narcotics destined for the "Chicago mob". They devise a scheme to plant a lookalike in the home and entrap whomever comes to steal it. Knuckles, who again professes a debt to Curtayne for not sending him to prison - or worse - when Curtayne had the chance before he dissolved in drink, and still clueless to Katrina's infidelity, agrees to spread the word about the suitcase's planned return that night around town.

Curtayne, wired for sound, volunteers to be the pigeon to deliver it and lie in wait for whomever was behind the original killing. It turns out to be the eldest Kovac brother, who tells him Knuckles is dead, abducts Curtayne, and marches him suitcase in hand towards the river and certain death.

Barra orders a police dragnet to close in on the area, but it proves too late. Even a last-ditch effort of a police woman who volunteers to intercept the pair fails in a hail of gunfire, with Curtayne felled point-blank by Kovacs. Moved by Curtayne's heroism, Barra tells Ricks he'll have to find someone else to press the bribery indictment against the wounded man, ashewon't. Before Ricks can respond the ambulance medic interrupts to tell them he hopes it wasn’t anything important because Curtayne is dead.

According to MGM records the film earned $1,107,000 in the US and Canada and $588,000 elsewhere, resulting in a $22,000 profit.<ref name="Mannix"/>

[[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' called the film "a curiously old-fashioned courtroom drama" that "moved ploddingly".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A05E5DA1539E43BBC4E53DFBF66838A649EDE|title=THE PEOPLE AGAINST O'HARA|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=September 6, 1951|accessdate=January 31, 2015}}</ref> A ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' reviewer wrote, "A basically good idea for a film melodrama [from a novel by Eleazar Lipsky] is cluttered up with too many unnecessary side twists and turns, and the presentation is uncomfortably overlong."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/1950/film/reviews/the-people-against-o-hara-1200416839/|title=Review: 'The People Against O'Hara'|author=<!-- Staff -->|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|year=1951|accessdate=January 31, 2015}}</ref>

* {{Allmovie title|id=105867|title=The People Against O'Hara}}

* {{Tcmdb title|id=86473|title=The People Against O'Hara}}

[[Category:American films]]

[[Category:English-language films]]