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==Plot== |
==Plot== |
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James Curtayne (Tracy) is a once highly successful criminal lawyer, driven to a long "vacation" and less demanding civil law by a losing battle with the bottle. Johnny O'Hara (Arness), a boy from the old neighborhood, is accused of a murder. Unable to pay Curtayne, his parents still beg "the counselor" to take the case. He accepts - knowing it will be a tough go, both personally and professionally. |
James Curtayne ([[Spencer Tracy|Tracy]]) is a once highly successful criminal lawyer, driven to a long "vacation" and less demanding civil law by a losing battle with the bottle. Johnny O'Hara ([[James Arness|Arness]]), a boy from the old neighborhood, is accused of a murder. Unable to pay Curtayne, his parents still beg "the counselor" to take the case. He accepts - knowing it will be a tough go, both personally and professionally. |
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Johnny's boss 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. When the police come to question him, Johnny flees, claiming he believed they were thugs seeking to kill him. During questioning, Detective Ricks (O'Brien) and District Attorney Barra ([[John Hodiak|Hodiak]]), reveal both the murder weapon and getaway car to be his. A young punk, Pete Korvac ([[William Campbell (film actor)|Campbell]]), is picked up. He claims he was Johnny's accomplice, and fingers Johnny as the trigger man. |
Johnny's boss 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. When the police come to question him, Johnny flees, claiming he believed they were thugs seeking to kill him. During questioning, Detective Ricks ([[Pat O'Brien|O'Brien]]) and District Attorney Barra ([[John Hodiak|Hodiak]]), reveal both the murder weapon and getaway car to be his. A young punk, Pete Korvac ([[William Campbell (film actor)|Campbell]]), is picked up. He claims he was Johnny's accomplice, and fingers Johnny as the trigger man. |
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Johnny insists he was working all night, but the night watchman refutes it. Instead, he'd been trysting with his lover, Katrina ([[Yvette Duguay|Duguay]]), the young wife of a tough mobster who controls the waterfront, "Knuckles" Lanzetti ([[Eduardo Ciannelli|Ciannelli]]). Knowing the consequences to both of them of revealing the truth Johnny lies to both the D.A. and his own attorney. |
Johnny insists he was working all night, but the night watchman refutes it. Instead, he'd been trysting with his lover, Katrina ([[Yvette Duguay|Duguay]]), the young wife of a tough mobster who controls the waterfront, "Knuckles" Lanzetti ([[Eduardo Ciannelli|Ciannelli]]). Knowing the consequences to both of them of revealing the truth Johnny lies to both the D.A. and his own attorney. |
The People Against O'Hara | |
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Directed by | John Sturges |
Screenplay by | John Monks Jr. |
Based on | the novel The People Against O'Hara byEleazar Lipsky |
Produced by | William H. Wright |
Starring |
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Cinematography | John Alton |
Edited by | Gene Ruggiero |
Music by | Carmen Dragon |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1 million[1][2] |
Box office | $1.7 million[1] |
The People Against O'Hara is a 1951 American crime film noir directed by John Sturges and based on Eleazar Lipsky's novel. The film features Spencer Tracy, Pat O'Brien, John Hodiak, and James Arness.[3]
James Curtayne (Tracy) is a once highly successful criminal lawyer, driven to a long "vacation" and less demanding civil law by a losing battle with the bottle. Johnny O'Hara (Arness), a boy from the old neighborhood, is accused of a murder. Unable to pay Curtayne, his parents still beg "the counselor" to take the case. He accepts - knowing it will be a tough go, both personally and professionally.
Johnny's boss 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. When the police come to question him, Johnny flees, claiming he believed they were thugs seeking to kill him. During questioning, Detective Ricks (O'Brien) and District Attorney Barra (Hodiak), reveal both the murder weapon and getaway car to be his. A young punk, Pete Korvac (Campbell), is picked up. He claims he was Johnny's accomplice, and fingers Johnny as the trigger man.
Johnny insists he was working all night, but the night watchman refutes it. Instead, he'd been trysting with his lover, Katrina (Duguay), the young wife of a tough mobster who controls the waterfront, "Knuckles" Lanzetti (Ciannelli). Knowing the consequences to both of them of revealing 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 (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 (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 for the duration and she married Knuckles. Curtayne abducts and 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.
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 his suitcase again fails scrutiny; instead, lab tests reveal the battered old bag had actually been impregnated with 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 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, seizes the suitcase, abducts Curtayne, and marches him 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, as he won't. Before Ricks can respond the ambulance medic interrupts to tell them 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.[1]
Bosley CrowtherofThe New York Times called the film "a curiously old-fashioned courtroom drama" that "moved ploddingly".[4]AVariety 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."[5]
The People Against O'Hara was presented on Lux Radio Theatre March 9, 1953. The one-hour adaptation starred Walter Pidgeon.[6]