Fact1: Johnny O'Hara is accused of murder, Fact2: only witness was man coming out of diner, Fact3: gun owned by Johnny appears to be murder weapon, Fact4: Johnny What refuses to tell authorities or even, Fact5: Curtayne 's Ginny did n't want widower dad to take on such stressful case
Output: James Curtayne Tracy has retired from criminal law, but when Johnny OHara Arness, a boy from the neighborhood, is accused of a murder, Curtayne takes the case. The boys parents plead for Curtaynes 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 OBrien 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 Johnnys 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. Curtaynes daughter Ginny Diana Lynn didnt 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 doublecross 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. Johnnys alibi about being at work proves to be a lie. Petes 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 Johnnys 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 Curtaynes behavior, possibly seeking to have him disbarred. Curtayne, however, is tipped off by Ricks about the boys relationship with gangster Knuckles wife, who is willing to come forward and accept the consequences now that Johnnys 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 Korvacs 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.