A Fever in the Blood

Ridiculous melodrama from Warner Bros. and director Vincent Sherman has pipe-smoking judge in Capital City (a miscast Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) setting his political sights on the governorship, but sidelined by dirty doings during a high-profile murder trial in which the district attorney on the case also intends to be governor. Plainly-filmed, poorly-written and acted potboiler full of boring men who take turns ignoring Angie Dickinson, playing the wife of beady-eyed Don Ameche, a windbag senator who eventually wants to run for president. Dickinson, with lacquered blonde hair, has apparently settled for Ameche but still carries a torch for Judge Efrem, now a widower--however, since he seems indifferent to her, always staring intensely off-camera like an eagle, one has to wonder are these two men her only options? Other subplots are introduced and dropped carelessly, while Zimbalist walks through the proceedings like a sexless sleepwalker. *1/2 from ****