The People Against O'Hara

Plot synopsis:
James Curtayne (Tracy) has retired from criminal law, but when Johnny O'Hara (Arness), a boy from the neighborhood, is accused of a murder, Curtayne takes the case. The boy's parents plead for Curtayne's help, even though they are too poor to pay him a fee.
A man Johnny knew was shot and killed during the night by two people in a passing car. The only witness, from a distance, was a man coming out of a diner. Johnny flees when the cops come to question him. Once the boy is in custody, Detective Ricks (O'Brien) and District Attorney Barra (John Hodiak) explain that a gun owned by Johnny appears to be the murder weapon. And a young punk, Pete Korvac (William Campbell), is claiming that he was Johnny's accomplice in the crime and is willing to testify that Johnny pulled the trigger.
Johnny insists he was working all night, but no one can verify that. What he refuses to tell the authorities, or even his own lawyer, is that he was with Katrina Lanzetta (Yvette Duguay), the young wife of a local gangster known as Knuckles (Eduardo Ciannelli). She has fallen in love with Johnny, but he is determined to protect her honor and her safety.
Curtayne's daughter Ginny (Diana Lynn) didn't want her widower dad to take on such a stressful case because he is a recovering alcoholic. Ginny lives with him, putting her own future with boyfriend Jeff (Richard Anderson) on hold. Curtayne expresses confidence he can handle the strain. He goes to see the Korvac family, trying to learn why young Pete, who has a criminal past, would double-cross Johnny this way. He also visits Knuckles, who knew the victim and is volunteering to help Curtayne, but the lawyer neither trusts nor believes Knuckles and declines his offer.
The case begins to go badly for the defense. Johnny's alibi about being at work proves to be a lie. Pete's chatty testimony is convincing and Curtayne has been unable to rattle him. Curtayne confides in Ricks, his friend, that he is becoming forgetful at inopportune times in court. Desperate, knowing that Johnny's life is on the line, Curtayne not only resumes drinking, he bribes the eyewitness with $500 after learning the man, Sven Norson (Jay C. Flippen), is willing to change his story for a price.
D.A. Barra discovers the bribe. He wins the case, convicting Johnny of murder, then must decide what to do about Curtayne's behavior, possibly seeking to have him disbarred. Curtayne, however, is tipped off by Ricks about the boy's relationship with gangster Knuckles' wife, who is willing to come forward and accept the consequences now that Johnny's been found guilty.
Curtayne tries to set up Knuckles, certain that he is the one behind the murder. He wears a wire for the police, looking for a confession. Instead, it turns out one of Pete Korvac's brothers is the man who did the fatal shooting, and Curtayne ends up at gunpoint. By the time Ricks, Barra and others tailing him can get there to make an arrest, Curtayne ends up fatally shot.

Tags: romantic

Review:
An excellent performance by Spencer Tracy in "The People Against O'Hara" lifts this all too familiar plot line to a different level.
Tracy is an alcoholic who, for the sake of his health and sobriety, becomes a civil attorney, only to be drawn back into criminal work when neighborhood friends need him to defend their son.
The son is played by a pre-Gunsmoke, blond James Arness, and it was a pleasure to see him do something besides the one-note Matt Dillon.
Diana Lynn does an excellent job as Tracy's protective daughter, and a pathetically young Richard Anderson is her patient fiancé.Tracy's performance drives the film, which is really just an excuse for a character study, and who better to essay it.
The ending is tense and suspenseful.There is a fine cast, including the above, Pat O'Brien John Hodiak, Eduardo Cianelli, and William Campbell (who in real life was for a time married to Judith Exner, the woman who went public with her affair with JFK).I think Spencer Tracy is always worth watching, and this film is no exception..
What it's all about is a young man framed for a murder, whose impoverished parents coax "retired" defense attorney Spencer Tracy to exonerate him;  Tracy plays half Clarence Darrow and half gumshoe.
Spencer Tracy's only venture into the noir genre finds him playing James P.
Curtayne, an alcoholic criminal lawyer who is living with daughter Diana Lynn.
She's essentially put her life on hold to take care of her father.Friends from his old neighborhood ask him to defend their son, James Arness, who is being charged with a homicide during the course of a what we would now call a home invasion.
Tracy's not up to it, he's past his prime and unable to break down the perjured testimony of William Campbell who says Arness was the trigger man in the crime.
He's got a sharp District Attorney in John Hodiak going against him.
But not quite.I liked John Hodiak as the District Attorney.
He's good in anything he does and his role here is as an honest lawyer who's more interested in finding out the truth than scoring another prosecutorial notch on his belt.
That in itself is very refreshing.Given Spencer Tracy's own alcholism this must have been a part way too close to home for him.
Usually Flippen plays upright characters so this portrayal of a witness willing to sell his testimony to the highest bidder is against type and good.Other good performances of note are Eduardo Ciannelli as the mob boss of the Fulton Fish Market, Pat O'Brien as Tracy's long time friend and homicide cop, and in a bit role in the end Ann Doran as a policewoman who puts herself on the line in the final confrontation scene.Both Tracy and Hodiak in this film are two of the best portrayals of the legal profession on the screen.
Even Tracy's ethical lapses are done with the best of intentions.The People Against O'Hara is a great example of film noir at it's best and one of the screen's finest players in his only venture in noir..
The People Against O'Hara is a slightly offbeat film to have come out in 1951.
The photography is by noir tyro John Alton, and in many of its night-time and shadowy scenes the movie looks like a thriller, which it really isn't.
Director John Sturges was an up and comer at the MGM of this time, and the film was one of the earlier shots at A level film-making.
The cast,--Spencer Tracy, Diana Lynn, Pat O'Brien, John Hodiak--are all fine.I can't say that the script is any great shakes, but it gets the job done.
I like the film more than most people and think that had the script been tidied up it might have been a great movie.
There are some splendid moments, and one in the courtroom in particular stands out, when a young thug delivers such a double-talking testimony that lawyer Tracy almost has a nervous breakdown while questioning him.
It's a tough scene to watch, alternately sad, realistic and infuriating.Tracy plays his role as a recovering alcoholic with sincerity and a conspicuous absence of sentiment.
Spencer Tracy,(James P.
Curtayne), plays a lawyer who wants to get away from Criminal Law and go into Civil suits with not very much pressure, because he has a drinking problem.
James Curtayne soon gets involved with a family he has known all his life and decides to help them when their son gets involved with a murder.
John Hodiak,(Louis Barra) is the Defense Attorney and gives James Curtayne a hard time in the court room.
Pat O'Brien,(Detective Vincent Ricks) is an old friend of James Curtayne and tries to help him stay focused on his law case and does give him some important leads.
There are many twists and turns in this crime drama and Spencer Tracy gives one of his best performances in this Classic 1951 film..
***SPOILERS*** Courtroom drama in and out of the halls of justice with former high profile defense attorney James Curtayne, Spencer Tracy,handling a murder case for the first time in years.
With his boss Bill Sheffield shot down in front of his building young Johnny O'Hara, James Arness,is picked up going to his parents apartment the next morning and arraigned for Sheffield's murder.
With his car identified at the murder scene and Johnny having no alibi to were he was at the time things don't look too good for the ex-con and WWII vet.
Defense attorney Curtayne nonetheless took up the case for Johnny, pro Bono, because he knew him all his life and felt that he was innocent.Having been away from dealing with criminal cases for years put a tremendous strain on the once brilliant defense attorney.
Curtayne once successfully defended 18 murder cases in a row getting his clients off.
Turning to the bottle and being drunk while handling Johnny's defense Curtayne lost his grip on the case and had assistant D.A Louis Barra ,John Hodiak, run circles around him in the courtroom and easily had Johnny convicted of murder.Johnny himself didn't help his case at all by not revealing that he was with his girlfriend Catrina, Vetta Duguay, at the time of the Sheffield killing since she's married to big time mobster Sol "Knockles" Lanzetta,Eduardo Ciannelli.
Curtayne desperately trying to get his client off the hook even went so far as to pay off a witness local stevedore Sven Norson, J.C Flippen, to change his testimony with a $500.00 personal check no less!
Convicted and waiting for a sentence that may well strap him into the electric chair Johnny still didn't want to bring out the fact that he was with Catrina when Sheffield was shot and killed; even when she came forward herself willing to be a witness for his defense.
It was later in the movie that Catrina unknowingly brought out the real reason for the Seffield murder and it was something that was right in front of both D.A Barra, in fact he was photographed with it.
Curtayne all during the trial would not only identify the killer, or killers since by revealing it would bring them out in the open and put her life in danger.A bit confusing at times "The People Against O'Hara" does hold together pretty well with James Curtayne risking his life in the end to save Johnny O'Hara from being executed by the state for a murder that he didn't commit.
Attorney Curtayne having himself "wired" to get the goods on the real murderers had him make up for all the mistakes he made in the movie by putting his life on the line to do it..
Spencer Tracy plays a seasoned attorney with his work cut out for him defending a young man in a murder trial.
The role has some depth to it, as the character is a struggling alcoholic who makes a mistake in a moment of weakness.
The rest of the cast doesn't match his performance, although John Hodiak is pretty good as the opposing counsel.
Curtayne (Spencer Tracy) decides to forgo civil law and accept a homicide criminal case involving an old time family friend.
Det. Vincent Ricks (Pat O'Brien) a police detective and friend advises him as does his daughter Virginia (Diana Lynn) not to do it as does his heart and former bout with alcoholism.
Still Johnny O'Hara (James Arness) needs his established reputation to save him from prison.
The story is fraught with dangers which involve the local mob as well as Curtayne's inability to deal with his return to drinking as the case tests his ethics.
For Tracy this is a remarkable film as one sees the sober lawyer deal with an inability to deal with his weaknesses.
A great movie and one easily recommended to Tracy fans.
This is a tidy crime drama about a "retired" attorney(Spenser Tracy)dealing with his own unethical behavior.
An apt group of players support the flawless Tracy: Pat O'Brien, John Hodiak, Regis Toomey, Diana Lynn and James Arness.
People Against O'Hara, The (1951) *** (out of 4) Part noir and part courtroom drama, this film isn't a complete success but it has enough going for it to make it worth viewing.
In the film Spencer Tracy plays an alcoholic lawyer who decides to help a couple poor friends out by defending their son (James Arness) who has been accused of murder.
The lawyer knows the kid is innocent but he can't get enough information on the streets as to who the real killer is so he must put his own life on the line to try and clear his client.
Sturges and Tracy would re-team four years later on the masterpiece BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK and while this film is no where near that one, this here at least offers up some fine performances and a terrific ending.
I thought the director did a much better job with the personal demons battling Tracy as he's trying to avoid drinking but as the pressure builds he keeps wanting back at the bottle.
Sturges handled these scenes extremely well including a heartbreaking and rather shattering one between Tracy and his daughter (Diana Lynn) as both of them break down and let their emotions show.
He did a really good job with the role and the scenes with him battling the alcoholism were very well handled and you could tell Tracy was giving it his all.
Pat O'Brien gets a pretty good bit as the Detective working the case and John Hodiak is very good as the D.A..
Lynn shines in her scenes including the unforgettable moment mentioned earlier and we also Eduardo Ciannelli playing a gangster.
I really wasn't too impressed with Arness here who gets several scenes where he's suppose to be playing scared and frustrated yet I didn't believe either emotion.
While the courtroom stuff doesn't work too well the director makes up for this in the final fifteen-minutes where we get a masterfully directed sting sequence.
Basically Tracy, the D.A. and the cops try to lure the real killers out and this is done with Tracy leading the way yet we never get to see him.
It's filmed from the cops point-of-view as they listen to Tracy over a radio and the way this is done builds up a terrific amount of suspense and easily makes the film worth sitting through for..
but is it a good pattern?I have my doubts.The -of course alcoholic-retired lawyer who redeems his name and his soul by saving an innocent will be the center character of so many courtroom movies that they it's impossible to count them all.Anyway,in "les inconnus dans la maison" ,a French movie of 1941,Raimu had a similar part with desperate case,daughter et al:this Henry Decoin movie was  a detective story,from a good George Simenon book.John Sturges's film would rather fall into the film noir category,complete with gangsters , bribes and false evidences .But his treatment verges on faux melodrama (the sobbing parents,the phone call when Tracy asks his daughter's squeeze to marry her,and of course the "moving" finale).the plot is never exciting,being muddled,complicated and mushy (see Johnny's attitude towards his girlfriend:it's worthy of the old folk song "the long black veil" when it lays claim to realism!The judge said "son,what's your alibi/if you were somewhere else/then you won't have to die;we really feel like screaming these lines to the fair knight Johnny)No suspense either.Maybe if we had any doubts about Johnny's innocence ,we could get some chills.The actor's performance is listless -one does not believe his risks his neck-and frankly,Spencer Tracy's is not that much mind-boggling either..
There are bookend scenes drenched in noirish atmosphere, but other than that this is a straight up courtroom drama that finds Spencer Tracy defending a man accused of murder who has an alibi but is reluctant to share it for fear that it will endanger his life.
You might think that Tracy, being Tracy, will eventually triumph in the courtroom, perhaps with a snag or two along the way.
He botches the defense and loses the case, and still redeems the accused but in a way we're not expecting.
The movie's treatment of alcoholism indeed is one of the things that sets it apart as a memorable little product of 1951, and in fact I think it's more notable for that than it is as an addition to the noir canon.Grade: B+.
This character and the film's ambiance seem closer to what is written about Tracy's life than anything else he ever made.(His "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde" was dark -- Ingrid Bergman is sensational in it.
Listen for it.In many ways he plays a character similar to the title role in "Father of the Bride," made around the same time.
This one was Predictable going in, an Overrated Director, John Sturges, and an Actor, when commenting on, becomes Blasphemous to call Overrated, but a case could be made, Spencer Tracy, always seemed to be Old On Screen even in the Early Days and although He could be Commanding and Intense, the Range was Small and He Rarely Played anything other than Spencer Tracy.
But He is much Beloved.MGM was Late to Film-Noir and Never seemed to Get it quite Right and this is another Excellent Example of the Studio Trying but Coming Up Short.
John Alton's Cinematography in the First Act and the Third Act give the Film a Distinctive Urban-Crime Feel and the Ending is Surprising considering the Studio.But the Film is Clunky at times and Tracy Struggles to show the Difference between His Drunk and Non Drunk Scenes.
But it is Worth a Watch for Spencer Tracy Fans, John Alton's Noir-ish Look and to See Director Sturgess before He Became completely Formulaic and a Mainstream Hack that Delivered Popcorn Pictures Masquerading as Artful Cinema like "The Great Escape" (1963) and "The Magnificent Seven" (1960)..
Spencer Tracy will always be good to see in any role, from Bad Day to Mohicians to this movie.
They don't make actors like Tracy and Bogart any more.
It was nice to see an old favorite, James Arness at such a young age of 29.
When recovering alcoholic attorney Spencer Tracy returns to criminal practice to defend accused murderer James Arness, he finds himself up against a ruthless machine of racketeering and crime.
But Tracy, who has known him and his family his entire life, delves deep into the bowels of New York City's crime circuit which is lead by a former defendant of his named "Knuckes" (Eduard Cianelli).
Tracy looses the case and Arness is sentenced to die, but Tracy is not about to give up, even at the expense of his sobriety, or his life...What could be a gripping crime drama or semi-film noir turns out to be a slightly dull, convoluted misfire.
Tracy, predictably, is excellent, and it is ironic to see his character battling demons that Tracy fought in real life.
Diana Lynn is his "motherly" daughter, fussing over him with worry every chance he gets, afraid he may resume drinking as a result of the stress over the case.
As directed by John Sturges (who also directed Tracy in the brilliant "Bad Day at Black Rock"), this had the potential for uniqueness but ultimately messes up with inadequacies in the screenplay and too much detail mixed in to follow easily..
Dependable Tracy in a good film noir.
I should begin by saying that I'm a tremendous fan of Spencer Tracy...second only to Cary Grant.
But even having said that, I think this is a very fine film noir which interestingly combines courtroom drama with back alley thugs.Spencer Tracy plays a criminal defense lawyer who demoted himself to civil law after alcoholism took its toll.
But then a family he has long known pleads with him to take their son's (a young James Arness) murder case.
You'll almost certainly see that coming, but there is a high degree of suspense here.The acting in this film is quite good.
Tracy is dependable as he almost always was, and this must have been a difficult film for him, considering his own problems with alcoholism.
Pat O'Brien plays a cop friend just about the way you'd expect him to.
John Hodiak is very good as the District Attorney...too bad his life as an actor was cut short.
Diana Lynn, who never really made it big, is very convincing here as the daughter concerned with the pressure her father will be under during the trail, as well as the alcoholism problem.One for the DVD shelf?
Tracy is a recovering alcoholic who returns to criminal law to defend the neighbors' son.A nice cast, with many familiar faces, and Tracy delivers in his own quietly flabby and unpretentious way.
Things fall apart; the center can't hold.Then he makes a final, self-sacrificial attempt to redeem himself and save the defendant whom he knows to be innocent.It's well photographed too, sly and dark, and Sturges' direction is efficient and to the point.It's rather a good film.