The Turning Point

If you like your noir realistic, then this film is for you. The twist ending will also provide a surprise for some, although it is generally a Hollywood formula that when two good guys are interested in the same girl, one of them usually gets knocked off. William Holden, Edmund O'Brien, Neville Brand (TV Untouchables), and Carolyn Jones all give outstanding performances. A reporter and cop love the same woman and the mob is after both men. Great dialogue; especially the line where the top hood says (paraphrasing) "your college degree didnt make you better or smarter than the rest of us in the real world".

Not to be confused with more than five dozen other movies of the same name, The Turning Point (1952) has Edmond O'Brien tapped to head an investigation into organized crime, aided by his girlfriend Alexis Smith. This provides background for newspaperman William Holden, who advises him that there's a lot of corruption to be rooted out; even O'Brien's father, police officer Tom Tully may be implicated. As the committee's investigation falls apart, Holden keeps digging. He becomes the target.

Based on a Horace McCoy story, this is a fine, complex noir feature rooted in the events of its time. William Dieterle directs with his usual sure hand, pulling out fine performances. Although Lionel Lindon's photography is not as dark as some noirs, he shoots all of the standard LA noir spots except the Bradbury Building, and his shadows, particularly in the climactic Olympic Stadium sequence, are as dark as any.

A nicely assembled rather complex story about small time corruption in an anonymous midwestern city that effectively balances its mix of plot elements into a plausible and interesting whole. Edmond O'Brien plays an idealistic lawyer who heads an investigation that leads him into his own family. William Holden plays an investigative reporter and childhood pal of O'Brien's, a likely and believable role for him, a born cynic on screen if there ever was one, who not only gets to the center of the corruption plague but also attracts the attentions of Alexis Smith, O'Brien's girlfriend and secretary. Directed by William Dieterle, the film should be pulled apart by its competing angles, but isn't, holding together nicely while it fits in the increasingly deadly corruption headed by an always convincing Ed Begley, and showing a sympathetic and at times pathetic O'Brien whose life seems to unravel around him as the film reaches its various points, leading to a tight and exciting conclusion with Neville Brand playing a out of town killer in a crowded boxing arena.

The Kefauver crime hearings in the US Senate were the inspiration for several films of which The Turning Point is one. It's neither the best or the worst of that group.

Idealistic young attorney Edmond O'Brien is put in charge of a local Kefauver like group with prosecutorial powers to go after the syndicate that operates in this unnamed midwest American city. He's the son of veteran police detective Tom Tully and he asks his father to help him in his investigation. Also helping out are Alexis Smith functioning as the commission secretary and a cynical William Holden who is a long time friend of O'Brien's and newspaper reporter.

The syndicate is headed by Ed Begley, his number two is his enforcer Ted DeCorsia and he's got a hotheaded torpedo on the payroll in Danny Dayton. This crime syndicate has its hooks in pretty deep and watching the film you see why they are always one step ahead of the investigating commission.

The Turning Point fits right in with Bill Holden's post Sunset Boulevard tough and cynical image. That would reach its apogee when next year Holden would win an Oscar for the ultimate cynic in Stalag 17.

The rest of the cast performs well in roles that fit them admirably. Some you will remember are Neville Brand as an out of town torpedo who has few words, but an aura of menace, Carolyn Jones in her film debut as a Virginia Hill type witness who performs on stand the way Judy Holliday did in the House Un-American Activities Committee as the dumb moll. But the performance that really stands out is that of Adele Longmire who is the wife of another torpedo who was doublecrossed and killed after a hit he performed. She is really a standout in her scenes as a frightened witness trying to flee the mob.

The Turning Point is a good noir drama that holds up very well today and is even relevant with some of the big name prosecutions of more recent vintage.

The Turning Point (1952)

Great cast (good guys and bad), great director (William Dieterle is a stalwart Hollywood director who did "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" among many others), and solid plot. You can't go wrong. It moves fast, it makes sense, it has drama and romance, and a great shoot-em-up ending in a boxing arena.

And yet something is withheld. I think it's partly camera-work, all very shadowy and excellent, but not elegant, not pumped up and dramatic. The story, as well, is a little routine. By 1952 this kind of crime noir gangster film is old stuff. They even hint at this in the movie, by saying that the unnamed midwestern city is seeing a rise in crime in the old style, a return of 1920s gangsterism. But if they mean to return to the great gangster films, they don't quite make it.

But it's still really fine--William Holden is an understated player and therefore underrated. And the co-lead, the star of "D.O.A." and "The Hitchhiker" among a few other lesser films, is Edmond O'Brien, who is maybe at his best here. You see a curious position for Holden, hot off of "Sunset Blvd.," in a somewhat secondary role, because he might be the leading hunk, but O'Brien is the leading man.

A good film without that special something to lift it up, but without a flaw, either, in any usual sense. Totally a pleasure in its understated approach.