Twilight of Honor

"Twilight of Honor" is a film with a rather mediocre overall score on IMDB of 6.3. Well, after seeing it, I cannot believe the film has such a rating, as it's a top-notch courtroom drama....and a film you'd likely appreciate.

This film is Richard Chamberlain's first starring role in a movie, though he'd done TV before this. He plays a young and very inexperienced lawyer who is set to defend a rather dim man for murder....and the town's atmosphere is definitely hostile towards him. On top of this, the state has brought in a cocky special prosecutor (James Gregory). All the young lawyer has is his idealism and some advice from his mentor (Claude Rains). Can he possibly get a light sentence or a verdict of not guilty with so many things working against him?

This is a very intelligent and well written drama...one that never was dull and managed to get the viewer to care about the dumb schnook on trial for his life. All in all, a nice little film well worth your time.

I was introduced to Nick Adams on the set of Twilight of Honor by my then girl friend Joey Heatherton. He was one of the nicest guys i had ever met and we became fast friends in the few days i spent with him and Joey while they were filming this movie. When I was about to go back to NY, I asked Nick for an autograph and he gave me a very large photo of himself and Kirk Douglas. i just took out that picture after many years and read the inscription that Nick wrote on the photo. It reads, "For Paul- This is the only big picture I have left so I hope you don't mind Kirk staring at you too. Only I just want to say I think you are a great guy and am very happy to be able to call you a friend. Looking forward to seeing more of you. Your Friend, Nick."

Soon after he wrote this to me I was told that he died...and later was told he took his own life. I was shocked and to this day do not know the story behind his suicide. I will treasure this photo forever.

As a break from his Dr. Kildare series, Richard Chamberlain got to get some good exposure on the big screen in Twilight of Honor. He didn't stray too much from his character of Dr. James Kildare though. Chamberlain is an idealistic young doctor on the small screen, on the big screen he's an idealistic young lawyer.

Twilight of Honor does have the potential for a television series. Claude Rains is the older and wise lawyer mentor here, just as Raymond Massey was on television for Chamberlain. Rains also has an attractive young daughter in Joan Blackman who aids both of the men in her life.

The real acting honors go to among others Nick Adams as the poor dumb hick of an Air Force veteran who is arrested for the murder of one of the town's leading citizens. The whole small New Mexican town is quite stirred up by the homicide and there's a lynch mob mentality brewing. A lot of very influential folks want to see Adams given a death sentence with at most a perfunctory trial. Adams is quite touching in his performance and was given an Oscar nomination for his performance.

Two other cast members worthy of note are James Gregory as the smarmy ambitious special prosecutor brought in for the judicial lynching. And the real surprise to me is Pat Buttram who plays the deceased and who's story gets told in flashback. For those of you who remember Pat from Green Acres, Hee Haw, or as Gene Autry's sidekick on his television series, this is quite a revelation. He's quite good in a serious role as a man going through a midlife crisis. But I'm sure the public just didn't accept him in a serious part, I can't recall him ever getting another one.

I'm sure MGM had a problem with this one. A few years later when made for TV movies started, Twilight of Honor would have been one of the best acclaimed. It sort of slipped in and out of the theaters before real notice was paid attention. That's a pity because it is a good film and catch it the next time TCM runs it.

This is, though entertaining, far from a good movie. It comes across as a long television show. And no wonder! The director did mostly TV. At the time, star Richard Chamberlain was known primarily for his Dr. Kildare series.

The supporting cast is lots of fun. It runs the gamut from -- OK, ready? Pat Butram .... to Joey Heatherton ... to Claude Rains. Yes, in the middle of this tale of a poor low class kid (Nick Adams, suitably confused looking) caught in the midst of a class-conscious small Southern town, Rains is the patriarchal retired lawyer. Yes, Claude Rains.

He looks frail and certainly doesn't seem especially Southern. But here was a man who never turned in a bad performance.

Chamberlain is good, too, and Jeanette Nolan is touching as the wife of the man Adams is accused of murdering.

In an unnamed city in a fictional county in New Mexico, a vicious killer (Nick Adams) is being tried for murder. The courtroom drama focuses on an ambitious prosecutor (James Gregory) and a young and inexperience defender (Richard Chamberlain).

Gregory is trying to ride the publicity surrounding the trial to a high political office, and there seem to be a lot of people willing to railroad the kid into the gas chamber. The case has several curious aspects. Adams has signed two different confessions but both of them have omitted large parts of his story. Adams also has a tramp for a wife (Joey Heatherton) who turned him in for the reward!

Into this media circus of lies and hype comes young Chamberlain who must battle the system ((including a judge who clearly favors the prosecutor). He relies on advice from a wily old lawyer (Claude Rains) who's been sidelined by ill health. Rains also has a comely daughter (Joan Blackman) who has eyes for Chamberlain.

Can the young lawyer navigate the complicated legal waters and fight the corruption to save his client?

All the actors are fine. Chamberlain (currently starring on TV as Dr. Kildare) gets the star build-up here from MGM. Rains steals all his scenes and Gregory and Adams are solid performers (Adams won an Oscar nomination). Heatherton makes her film debut here.

Cast includes Jeanette Nolan as the widow, Linda Evans as her daughter, Edgar Stehli as the judge, Arch Johnson as the bartender, Robin Raymond as Heatherton's ma, and Pat Buttram as the victim.

Much of the film is told in flashback, but the overall storyline suffers by being a tad too close to the classic Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Still worth a look.