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Circles and lines: It opens with a 360° pan in downtown New England, then introduces the murderer as a hand with revolver entering the frame at a slanted angle. The victim is a beloved minister (Wyrley Birch), the ensuing manhunt and "political three-ring circus" proceed with cutaways to tangible location photography in neighborhood porches, pool halls, a bridge party at a fire station. The fellow caught in the whirlwind of public outrage and media scorn is a drifting vet (Arthur Kennedy) who confesses after a few sleepless days under the interrogation spotlight. A conviction would pave the way to the governor's office for the State Attorney (Dana Andrews), still doubt crosses his mind mid-indictment and kicks off a private investigation. "It's a chance." "So is going over Niagara Falls in a barrel." A close study of Young Mr. Lincoln for the "lesson in trial procedure," the lynching mob outside the jailhouse is adduced even as Elia Kazan trades Ford's mythical vision for noir unease. Jane Wyatt's domestic versatility as the prosecutor's wife (she serves milk and beer) coexists with the profuse sweating of Ed Begley's politico, both are accomplices in a crooked deal while a momma's boy brimming with unmentionable sins (Philip Coolidge) is offered as the culprit for a hint of divine justice. The best work is done mostly against the grain of Louis de Rochemont's newsreel tidiness, the mix of realism and stylization creates a documentary fabric only to have stormers like Lee J. Cobb and Sam Levene chew through it. (Chekhov's gun clicks in the courtroom, a dramatic bullet is fired all the same.) "Save your editorial for the paper." The young Godard's criticism of Kazan's "phenomenon of the proscenium" is answered by Hitchcock himself (The Wrong Man). With Karl Malden, Cara Williams, Taylor Holmes, and Robert Keith. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |