Criminal Court

This is a good noir-ish courtroom drama that is well acted and nicely paced, directed by Robert Wise. It is a b- movie but is very solidly made and it will hold your attention.

Tom Conway stars as a criminal defense lawyer with a flamboyant courtroom style. In one particularly long courtroom scene early in the film Conway delivers a stunning performance. Anyone who has any doubts about Conway's acting abilities should view that one scene and they will change their mind. Little known Martha O'Driscoll is very beautiful in this, her nightclub scenes are well staged and her overall performance is first rate. Many fine performers such as Robert Armstrong and the great Addison Richards round out the cast.

If you want to see courtroom dramatics and cunning legal maneuvers in a mid-1940's film-noir setting, "Criminal Court" is recommended for you.

Tom Conway stars in Criminal Court, a 1946 B movie also starring Martha O'Driscoll, and June Clayworth.

Conway plays Steve Barnes, a lawyer with a great reputation who is going to run for DA. When his girlfriend (O'Driscoll, who in real life married big money and got out of Dodge) is accused of the murder of the gangster whose club she worked in, he defends her.

It was an accidental shooting, and he actually did it. There is an eye witness, if only he can find out who it is -- and there is a lot of resistance to him finding out.

This is a very light noir without much suspense, mildly entertaining. I always enjoy Tom Conway, and I wasn't that familiar with O'Driscoll, so I found it enjoyable.

Tom Conway is a defense attorney running for the office of District Attorney on a platform of cleaning up corruption. This puts him at odds with mobster Robert Armstrong, who tries to blackmail into dropping his crusade. They tussle and Conway accidentally kills Armstrong. With no witnesses, he opts to sneak away, but unluckily for him, his girlfriend Martha O'Driscoll, who works in Armstrong's nightclub, discovers the body and is blamed for the murder. Conway tries to confess, but nobody believes him leaving him to defend O'Driscoll in court for a murder he committed.

Robert Wise's first foray into film noir is an extremely tight little B film (it runs a couple of minutes over an hour) with a truly ludicrous plot, but a lot of really fun moments and a good lead performance from Conway to carry you through.

Lawyer Tom Conway (Steve) is on a campaign to become elected DA at the same time as battling court cases against the local criminal gang. He finds himself having to defend his girlfriend Martha O'Driscoll on a charge of murdering one of the top bad guys Robert Armstrong (Vic). O'Driscoll is innocent but things don't look good for her. Conway has one chance of saving her from being guilty - he has to find the one witness to the crime that can save her.

The cast are all good and Tom Conway is very easy to relate to with his relaxed approach. It's a standard crime story that's easy to follow and keeps you watching to see how lawyer Tom Conway is going to swing things in his favour. Nothing special going on but still entertaining.

Director Robert Wise, near the beginning of his career, made a decent lawyer film with a good ending. There's not much suspense, and the plot device owes much to the play, "Hat, Coat and Glove"; and it is no surprise that Tom Conway was in a film re-make of that play when it was made into a movie a second time. While this might not be great noir, it is certainly a "B movie" that is easy to watch.