Twilight of Honor
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
David Mitchell (Richard Chamberlain), a widowed lawyer in a small New Mexican city, is appointed by Judge Tucker to defend Ben Brown (Nick Adams) who has been charged with murder. Norris Bixby, an ambitious local prosecutor, has been assigned to try the case, hoping to fill the shoes of Art Harper (Claude Rains), a famed local prosecutor as well as David's friend and mentor, who is now retired.
Mitchell goes to see Art Harper that night to ask for advice and receives a pep-talk from Harper, demanding he use every legal trick in the book to defend his new client. They are interrupted by Harper's niece, Susan (Joan Blackman), who has romantic feelings for David, and has just arrived back in town from Chicago.
During dinner Mitchell says Ben Brown confessed to the killing, and the prosecution is asking for the gas chamber. He knows that Brown is unlikely to get a fair trial in town, and even he confesses to having preconceived notions about him.
Harper says played a role in Mitchell's being appointed as the defense on the case, and that while he himself is not healthy enough to defend the case personally, he will help Mitchell try to obtain justice for the accused. Susan also volunteers to be his legal secretary, hoping to spend time with Mitchell.
The next morning, Mitchell goes to the prison to see his new client. He runs into Ben's wife, Laura-Mae Brown (Joey Heatherton), who turned her husband in, and reveals that she despises her husband, and "hopes he croaks," claiming Ben frequently beat her.
She says he murdered a man in a bungled robbery attempt, then fled in the man's car. She also claims her husband is a compulsive liar, and that Mitchell didn't run into her by chance; Bixby wanted her to talk to him, to make it appear the trial will be fair. Despite what his wife said about him, Ben appears to be only concerned with his wife's freedom, claiming he wants her to have a good lawyer. Ben says that he was starved, threatened, and beaten into signing the confession. He also reveals that a second confession was sought, and that parts of the first were purposely left off, including Ben's assertion that the murdered man, Cole Clinton, an off-duty police officer, was committing adultery with his wife before the murder.
Mitchell and Harper research New Mexico law, and find a precedent which states that a murder that occurs during the adultery of a man's spouse is deemed justifiable homicide. Mitchell also reveals that the entire jury list is consisting of friends of Clinton, who was a popular man in town. Despite this, they feel that they finally have a solid defense for the case. After Harper goes to bed, Susan tells Mitchell she loves him.
The next morning, Mitchell, Morris Bixby, and Judge Tucker arrive to pick the jury. Mitchell and Bixby argue over the fairness of the case, and when picking the jury, Judge Tucker refuses to disqualify Clinton's friends and club members. At lunch, David finds that a local paper is being sold outside the court in view of the jurors, and the front page story features Ben's confession. Mitchell finds out that Bixby leaked the confession to the press, knowing that the jurors will read it.
Back in court, a witness claims that Ben was abusive towards his wife in a bar, and that he was eyeing Clinton's money. Another witness claims that Ben saw Clinton drop his money, and clearly knew he had a large wad of bills on him. When Mitchell asserts that Clinton intended to spend the night with Laura-Mae, Mrs. Clinton faints.
After the day in court, Mitchell visits Mrs. Clinton at her request. She reveals that Mitchell's suspicions are true, and that for the last few years, her husband was chasing younger women. She offers to plea for mercy for Ben, if David drops his adultery defense out of respect for Clinton's daughter, who idolized her father. Mitchell refuses her offer, hoping to help Ben avoid being found guilty altogether.
Although an autopsy wasn't performed, Clinton's doctor alleges that he wasn't in the act of sexual intercourse during death. Bixby calls Clinton's widow to the stand, despite Mitchell's objections. She says the accusations against her late husband are false, and although Mitchell could prove her wrong, he feels pity and refuses to cross-examine her.
The next day Ben's commanding officer from his time in the Air Force testifies Ben changed after being married, going AWOL repeatedly to see his wife, becoming moody, and showing signs of mental instability. After being denied leave to look for his wife, he attempted to hang himself as well.
Mitchell then calls Ben to the stand. Ben tells how he first met his wife in a bar, after seeing her dancing seductively at the jukebox. He was smitten by her and they danced and talked for hours. She accompanied him to his room, and despite just meeting her, Ben proposed marriage. She was arrested for prostitution, and after getting her out of jail, they began hitchhiking cross country where they met Mr. Clinton, who picked them up after seeing Laura-Mae. He showed his badge and gun, telling him not to worry about tickets. At a motel, Ben found Laura-Mae and Clinton together. He ran in as Clinton pulled his gun. In the struggle, Ben grabbed the gun and beat him to death with it. They fled in Clinton's car. Ben also tearfully admits he still loves his wife, and bears no ill will, even though she turned him in and applied for the reward money. Bixby begins his cross examination, asserting that Ben pimped his wife to Clinton, beating him to death when he refused. Bixby can't legally call Laura-Mae to the stand to testify against her husband, so he goads Mitchell into calling her, which he does. The judge dismissed court before she can testify however.
David visits Laura-Mae to try to get her to agree to tell the truth, and realizes she is about to have company. He waits around and sees a man enter her room. Looking through the window, he realizes it is Bixby's co-prosecutor, Judson Elliot, and that he is having an affair with her, despite being married and having four kids. In court the next morning, Laura-Mae takes the stand. As Bixby begins his cross examination, David reveals in the judge's quarters that he saw them, and will reveal the story if they cross-examine her. He also finds out that Elliot is carrying Clinton's money clip, which Laura-Mae gave to him. After dismissing Elliot, Bixby refuses to compromise, and as court resumes, Harper arrives and is wheeled into the courtroom by Mitchell.
Mitchell begins his closing statement. He goes over all of the points of the trial, as well as the conniving done by the state to protect Mr. Clinton's reputation, and further Bixby's career. Bixby's rebuttal emphasizes the confession and plays on the emotions of the jury, most of whom were friends with Clinton. He claims that they can't find Ben innocent without finding Clinton guilty. The jury retires to deliberate, while Harper jovially challenges Mitchell to declare his intentions for Susan.
Ben is found not guilty on all counts. Bixby is outraged at the loss, knowing it will hurt his career and curtail his ambitions. Harper confesses that Mitchell's new-found fame will make him the target of anyone in the Southwest in serious trouble, and passes the mantle to him. Mitchell declares his intentions for Susan, and the film ends with them sharing a kiss in front of the courthouse, then walking home hand in hand.

Review: As a break from his Dr. Kildare series, Richard Chamberlain got to get some good exposure on the big screen in Twilight of Honor.
Chamberlain is an idealistic young doctor on the small screen, on the big screen he's an idealistic young lawyer.Twilight of Honor does have the potential for a television series.
Claude Rains is the older and wise lawyer mentor here, just as Raymond Massey was on television for Chamberlain.
Rains also has an attractive young daughter in Joan Blackman who aids both of the men in her life.The real acting honors go to among others Nick Adams as the poor dumb hick of an Air Force veteran who is arrested for the murder of one of the town's leading citizens.
A lot of very influential folks want to see Adams given a death sentence with at most a perfunctory trial.
Adams is quite touching in his performance and was given an Oscar nomination for his performance.Two other cast members worthy of note are James Gregory as the smarmy ambitious special prosecutor brought in for the judicial lynching.
And the real surprise to me is Pat Buttram who plays the deceased and who's story gets told in flashback.
For those of you who remember Pat from Green Acres, Hee Haw, or as Gene Autry's sidekick on his television series, this is quite a revelation.
He's quite good in a serious role as a man going through a midlife crisis.
A few years later when made for TV movies started, Twilight of Honor would have been one of the best acclaimed.
That's a pity because it is a good film and catch it the next time TCM runs it..
MGM launches Richard Chamberlain into the movies.
TV's Dr. Kildare, Richard Chamberlain, a huge matinée idol back in the '60s, was given "Twilight of Honor" by MGM to cash in on his popularity and make him into a movie star.
To do that, they gave him excellent support in the form of Claude Rains, Nick Adams, James Gregory, Jeanette Nolan, Honor Blackman, and Pat Buttram.
The film is directed by Boris Sagal, who did a lot of television, and as a movie, it isn't as good as "Anatomy of a Murder," from which the script is pretty much ripped off.Chamberlain plays a young attorney and widower, David Mitchell who's assigned a rotten case, that of an unstable soldier accused of murdering one of the small New Mexico town heroes, and he's confessed - twice.
The special prosecutor (Gregory) is hoping to sweep into political office with the case, and the judge sides with him through most of the trial.
Mitchell turns to the distinguished attorney and his friend, Art Harper, who is ill but nonetheless is full of fire and gives Mitchell some guidance.
The defense is a New Mexico law that allows a man to kill because of adultery, something the victim's widow (Jeanette Nolan) and his friends would like to keep quiet.Joey Heatherton plays the slutty wife of Nick Adams, and she gives a very overt performance.
Nick Adams, who would die of an overdose five years later, has a good role and does an excellent job; it earned him an Oscar nomination, and he allegedly spent over $8,000 advertising to win it.
Jeanette Nolan is lovely and serene as the victim's wife.
Claude Rains in one of his last films is marvelous.
Richard Chamberlain even then had a strong enough talent to hold his own against the more experienced actors.
Although in the last 46 years, he's had a decent film career, certainly it doesn't compare to his King of the Miniseries crown or some wonderful stage work, including Night of the Iguana and My Fair Lady, both of which I saw and loved.
As a baby boomer, he has a special place in my heart.This film was probably intended for the teen crowd, Chamberlain's fan base, which is why there's a lot of talk about sex but no real action..
young lawyer (Richard Chamberlain) defends a young rebel (nick adams) accused of murder..
This is the infamous film for which Nick Adams was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar owing to his spending a great deal of his own money and time campaigning.
He had promised best friend, actor Robert Conrad, that he was going to be the first TV actor to get a nomination and he did, after sparing no effort to browbeat Academy members.
Also, he was supposedly dumbfounded when Melvyn Douglas received the award for his old cowboy in Hud. Adams is okay, nothing more, in this film - he actually should have campaigned for another film he did that year, The Hook with Kirk Douglas, because that was his best role ever in a film.
Here, he wears a black leather jacket and does a James Dean routine (they were in Rebel Without a Cause together, Dean with the lead, Adams with one line) as a misunderstood loner he gets accused of murder.
His love interest, a wild child, is played by Joey Heatherton, who had been depressed ever since her father, TV's Merry Mailman, refused to let her play the title role in Lolita - which is pretty much what she does here, only doing so after Tuesday Weld passed up the part in this film.
Richard Chamberlain, in his bland leading man days before he learned to act by doing Hamlet in London, is the defense lawyer, Joan Blackman his classy girlfriend, and the great Claude Raines provides the real reason for watching as an older lawyer.
Watchable but routine, and not very different from any halfway decent TV lawyer show of the time except that it runs twice as long..
Nick Adams and Joey Heatherton.
I was introduced to Nick Adams on the set of Twilight of Honor by my then girl friend Joey Heatherton.
He was one of the nicest guys i had ever met and we became fast friends in the few days i spent with him and Joey while they were filming this movie.
When I was about to go back to NY, I asked Nick for an autograph and he gave me a very large photo of himself and Kirk Douglas.
i just took out that picture after many years and read the inscription that Nick wrote on the photo.
Only I just want to say I think you are a great guy and am very happy to be able to call you a friend.
Your Friend, Nick."Soon after he wrote this to me I was told that he died...and later was told he took his own life.
I was shocked and to this day do not know the story behind his suicide.
Twilight of Claude Rains.
OK courtroom drama from Perlberg-Seaton, with MGM capitalizing on Richard Chamberlain's TV success by casting him as a rather Kildare-like defense attorney.
He's recently widowed, and he's given the unenviable job of defending sleazy-but-polite Nick Adams, who's already confessed, twice, to murdering Pat Buttram, a well-liked local politico who was trying to make time with Adams' sluttish wife, Joey Heatherton.
Chamberlain's OK, and so are the courtroom exploits, with a screenplay that seems to delight in pushing the envelope a bit in terms of sexual conversation circa 1963.
There's discussion of impotence, sleeping nude, and prostitution, and several sequences of Joey Heatherton twitching luridly next to a jukebox.
But the best reason to watch is Claude Rains, as Chamberlain's former professor and current legal adviser.
He looks genuinely unsteady and hasn't many good lines, but it's a beautiful, modest, underplayed performance.
Joan Blackman is on hand as his daughter, to provide the rather tepid romantic interest, and Jeanette Nolan is good (when wasn't she) as Buttram's protective widow.
The flashback format is unwieldy, and Boris Sagal directs it like it's a big TV show, but it keeps your interest pretty steadily, especially as a barometer of what was and wasn't permissible on screen in1963..
A Good Courtroom Drama.
This is, though entertaining, far from a good movie.
At the time, star Richard Chamberlain was known primarily for his Dr. Kildare series.The supporting cast is lots of fun.
to Joey Heatherton ...
to Claude Rains.
Yes, in the middle of this tale of a poor low class kid (Nick Adams, suitably confused looking) caught in the midst of a class-conscious small Southern town, Rains is the patriarchal retired lawyer.
Yes, Claude Rains.He looks frail and certainly doesn't seem especially Southern.
But here was a man who never turned in a bad performance.Chamberlain is good, too, and Jeanette Nolan is touching as the wife of the man Adams is accused of murdering..
Richard Chamberlain.
Richard Chamberlain was as big a star as MGM ever had when Chamberlain was TV's Dr. Kildare.
Chamberlain had an iron clad 7 year contract, and MGM kept him busy both on TV and in movies, and his first movie was the western A Thunder of Drums billed far below George Hamilton and Luana Patten.
After his rocket to fame, MGM starred Richard Chamberlain in this first rate court room drama Twilight Of Honor to cash in on Chamberlain's tremendous popularity.
In his Dr. Kildare days Chamberlain is reported to have gotten 15,000 fan letters per week more than Clark Gable ever got in his heyday as King of the MGM Lot. MGM in those days was the premier movie studio and this film reflects the quality production values the MGM studio gave its films.
The production team of Perlberg/Seaton were assigned this film and cast along with Chamberlain a true star and class act Claude Rains.
Nick Adams also stars.
Richard Chamberlain, then-hot from TV's "Dr. Kildare", plays a green defense attorney who takes on a supposedly-unwinnable murder case in court, aided by creaking legal legend Claude Rains.
Adaptation of Al Dewlen's novel plays like a junior-league variation of "Anatomy of a Murder"...one without the necessary bold, unflinching talent up-front to make even a mild impression.
Rains certainly helps, and slithering Joey Heatherton has a silly but standout supporting role; otherwise, Chamberlain is inherently too soft to carry such a scenario, and the screenplay, dotted with sexual details delivered with whacking emphasis, is (almost amusingly) overripe.
Great Joey Heatherton Film.
Always enjoy viewing this film mainly because Joey Heatherton's father was a mail man and delivered the mail to my home at the time in Nassau County, Long Island, New York.
Richard Chamberland,(David Mitchell),"The Pavilion",'99, was a lawyer in this picture and wound up having to defend Joey Heatherton's (Laura Mae Brown), husband from a crime he was accused of performing on a police officer.
Laura is a very sexy hot to trot gal and performs all sorts of wild movements with her body in a bar next to a classic jukebox in the 1960's.
Claude Rains,(Art Harper),"The Invisible Man",'33 makes a brief appearance and adds a good supporting role.
This is a very entertaining film in Black and White and held my interest from beginning to the very end..
This is one of the best films, I have ever seen..
joey Heatherton's role.
i know her Dad had a TV show,kinda like "Mr. Rogers", where he played a mailman...
In this movie-i bet this was where she got her 'moves' !!!Nick Adams was GREAT in this role....
BUT "Hud" was 'HOT' that year, and Mr. Douglas deserved his due;he had never won an Oscar up till then-he did again in '79 for "Being There"...
I wouldn't think Mr. Adams would have committed suicide over this 'slight'...
he must have known how the 'Academy' worked,at least, back then!....But having 9 speeding tickets in one year spells trouble!.
The important things to know about this movie are as follows: Claude Rains, even at the end of his career and life, was an exceptional actor.
Second, Nick Adams was a tragic figure.
Third, Richard Chamberlain in his day was not only a heart throb, but a very fine actor.
Fourth, Joey Heatherton (here in her first movie) was hotter then hot.
Lastly, this is actually a pretty good movie.
In many respects, it is a poor man's "Anatomy of A Murder", but it does hold up pretty well 50 years later.
The courtroom stuff blends back and forth with the scenes leading up to the crime told in recall.
Adams got a Best Supporting Actor nomination out of it and the rest of the cast does a professional and workman-like job, director and writer included.
A few problems, but overall a decent courtroom film; Claude Rains shines.
The story line here is quite good.
A very troubled young man (Nick Adams) marries a floozy (Joey Heatherton), and a sleaze ball (Pat Buttram) ends up dead.
Both are sent to trial for murder, but the case against the woman is dropped.
Richard Chamberlain is appointed as the defense counsel, while James Gregory is the prosecuting attorney.
Through twists and turns, the majority of the film is spent in the courtroom at the trial.This was Claude Rains' next-to-the-last film.
He's clearly not well here, but still did a terrific job in his own twilight as a sort of coach to the defense attorney.It seems to me that you have to divide Richard Chamerlain's performance into two distinct parts.
I think he does fairly well when he's not in the courtroom, but in the courtroom I think he overacted...perhaps based on the film's director (?).Joey Heatherton gets a lot of attention because of this, her debut film, but Joan Blackman as the once girlfriend of Chamberlain actually puts in a better performance.I always think of Nick Adams as a television actor, not one that was really cut out to be on the big screen.
After watching this film -- in which he does "okay" as the defendant -- I still think he was best suited for television.James Gregory deserves mention here (as the prosecutor).
Almost always an actor that was fun to watch.Pat Buttram plays a sleaze ball here...and is not impressive while doing so.
Jeanette Nolan has a decent role as his wife.
Edgar Stehli is great as an old judge.While I'm not sure that the verdict is logical, it makes an interesting film -- good, but not great.
You probably know how the TV series "Law and Order was structured.
The second half took us into the DA's office where legal issues were discussed, culminating in a condensed version of a trial.
"Twilight of Honor" is like the second half of "Law and Order." I'ts fast paced and mostly dispassionate, except for whatever passions are generated by the judicial process itself.Not that "Twilight of Honor" in any way copied "Law and Order." It couldn't have.
The movie was released more than twenty years before the TV series.
If there is a source for "Twilight of Honor", it's likely to have been "To Kill A Mockingbird", which came out the year before, or even "Anatomy of a Murder," from 1959.
Example: Claude Raines, in his last movie, is the dropsical and avuncular mentor to brash but uncertain lawyer Richard Chamberlain.
They get together in the evenings to discuss the process of the case, and Chamberlain's next moves in trying to defend prisoner Nick Adams on a charge of murder.
Late one night, Raines stretches and says, "I wonder who registered the two-room suite at that motel." Cut. It's the next day and Chamberlain is holding the receipts from the motel and challenging a witness.
No tedious scene in which he visits the motel and has to wangle the registration forms from the reluctant man behind the desk.Director Boris Sagal (Katy's dad) rushes the emotion too much.
Raines doesn't have many scenes and seem old and sadly fagged out, as is his character.
Richard Chamberlain plays it straight and he's not bad.
(He was quite good in "The Last Wave.") Something seemed to keep him bound to television or minor movies.
Maybe he was too blandly handsome or too gay.James Gregory is the ambitious District Attorney and he plays the only role he's ever played, the pompous, indignant, blatherskite gascon.
He does it so well that he's funny, as in "The Manchurian Candidate." Nick Adams seems as lost as his character.
Chamberlain has a love interest.
He's just coming down from the death of his wife and gradually develops an attraction for Raines' daughter, Joan Blackman, who is pretty but cannot act.
Joey Heatherton is Adams' sluttish wife who does sexy solo dances at juke joints just to watch the men gawk at her.
We begin by knowing nothing about the case, and we're filled in my shimmering flashbacks during interviews with the principals.
It doesn't quite work because the flashbacks are introduced in any linear way.
You won't finish it feeling that it was a complete waste of time, only with a vague sense that, with a bit more care, it could have been considerably better than it is.New Mexico, where the story is set, is an odd state.
Twilight of Honor Can Be Put to Bed **1/2.
Everyone in town is ready to lynch Nick Adams for the killing of an elderly,respectable gentleman.
Problem is that the old guy had gone somewhat off his rocker and had become a sexual pervert in his older years.
Even his wife admits this.Richard Chamberlain plays the widower lawyer assigned to defend Adams.
He goes to Claude Rains for advice.
If Raymond Massey had this part, it would be Kildare in the attorney mode.Joey Heatherton plays a tramp here, but her efforts are minimal.
With a wife like her, no wonder Adams, who surprisingly received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, has gone off.Of all people, Pat Butram plays the old sexual crow.James Gregory gives a good performance as the prosecuting attorney, and sometimes acts as he did so famously as Angela Lansbury's idiotic senator-husband in "The Manchurian Candidate," the year before.The picture becomes one of at first pleading guilty due to seeing your wife have sex with Butram and acting accordingly.
The picture is awfully tedious at times.