I think the best one can say for this yeoman-like effort is that it makes you wonder why more movies haven't been shot in the City of Broad Shoulders. The footage inside the Statesville Prison "panopticon" alone is worth the bother of watching the film.
The look of the film is engagingly straightforward. No tricky bits or funny angles, but a lot of visual realism. One could watch hours of such footage of 1940s Chicago, and the views out of the "Times's" windows were either real (and fantastic) or fake (and fantastic).
Tragically, once you get past the scenery, there's little that engages.
Some of the smaller parts are well-played. Poor EG Marshall has about 45 seconds of screen time. Maybe a little more for Lee Cobb. The only people who really make an impression are the convict's mother (in a sort of Mother Teresa role), and the woman who gets our boy put away, the speakeasy owner Wanda Skutnik. Now that's one scary broad with one scary name. Unfortunately, she doesn't get to scare us nearly enough.
Poor Jimmy, whom I usually enjoy, is reduced to running around acting fairly melodramatic once he gets going: arms waving, etc., etc., as he says, "He's innocent, I tell you!" and "That woman's a liar and has been from the get-go!" Oh, my.
There are several technical bits, first about lie detector tests and then about the use of a wirephoto. These bits of gee-whiz technology (which I don't think were *that* gee-whiz in 1948, frankly) get a bit drawn out. This isn't helped by Mr. Stewart bleating, "Now watch the date! Watch the date!" as a blown-up photo is revealed in the darkroom.
The other thing that annoys is that everything hinges on a "special" Pardon Board hearing. There's some minor delay in the newspaper's being able to present some evidence, and everyone's acting as though waiting 5 minutes would be entirely unacceptable. (Also, why a newspaper has standing to ask for or rescind requests for pardons is a bit blurry, at best.) Gives screenwriters a bad name, this sort of thing.
Watch it for the scenery, not for the scenes.
The look of the film is engagingly straightforward. No tricky bits or funny angles, but a lot of visual realism. One could watch hours of such footage of 1940s Chicago, and the views out of the "Times's" windows were either real (and fantastic) or fake (and fantastic).
Tragically, once you get past the scenery, there's little that engages.
Some of the smaller parts are well-played. Poor EG Marshall has about 45 seconds of screen time. Maybe a little more for Lee Cobb. The only people who really make an impression are the convict's mother (in a sort of Mother Teresa role), and the woman who gets our boy put away, the speakeasy owner Wanda Skutnik. Now that's one scary broad with one scary name. Unfortunately, she doesn't get to scare us nearly enough.
Poor Jimmy, whom I usually enjoy, is reduced to running around acting fairly melodramatic once he gets going: arms waving, etc., etc., as he says, "He's innocent, I tell you!" and "That woman's a liar and has been from the get-go!" Oh, my.
There are several technical bits, first about lie detector tests and then about the use of a wirephoto. These bits of gee-whiz technology (which I don't think were *that* gee-whiz in 1948, frankly) get a bit drawn out. This isn't helped by Mr. Stewart bleating, "Now watch the date! Watch the date!" as a blown-up photo is revealed in the darkroom.
The other thing that annoys is that everything hinges on a "special" Pardon Board hearing. There's some minor delay in the newspaper's being able to present some evidence, and everyone's acting as though waiting 5 minutes would be entirely unacceptable. (Also, why a newspaper has standing to ask for or rescind requests for pardons is a bit blurry, at best.) Gives screenwriters a bad name, this sort of thing.
Watch it for the scenery, not for the scenes.