Illegal (1955)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Lewis Allen

Writers:

W.R. Burnett (writer)
Frank J. Collins (play)

Release Date:

24 August 1956 (Finland)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

He was a guy who marked 100 men for death - until a blonde called 'Angel' O'Hara marked him for life!

Plot:

After an overly aggressive district attorney unknowingly sends an innocent man to the chair, he resigns, turns to drink, and acquires a criminal clientele.

Plot Keywords:

Electric Chair | Innocent Man | Courtroom | District Attorney | Impressionists

Cast

Edward G. Robinson	...	Victor Scott
Nina Foch	...	Ellen Miles
Hugh Marlowe	...	Ray Borden
Robert Ellenstein	...	Joe Knight
DeForest Kelley	...	Edward Clary
Jay Adler	...	Joseph Carter
James McCallion	...	Allen Parker
Edward Platt	...	Ralph Ford
Albert Dekker	...	Frank Garland
Jan Merlin	...	Andy Garth
Ellen Corby	...	Miss Hinkel
Jayne Mansfield	...	Angel O'Hara
Henry Kulky	...	Taylor
Addison Richards	...	Steve Harper
Howard St. John	...	E.A. Smith

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Norway:16 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Criminal Courts Building - 210 W. Temple Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Frank Garland's impressive collection of Impressionist art actually was loaned to the film by collector Edward G. Robinson. Included are works by Gaugin, Degas, Duran, and Robinson's wife, Gladys Lloyd.

Quotes:

Miss Hinkel: [answering the phone] Mr. Scott's office.
[pause]
Miss Hinkel: No, this is not the Safeway Cleaners and Dryers!
[hanging up]
Miss Hinkel: Some idiot wants his pants pressed. Maybe we oughta get a new number.
Victor Scott: Not so fast. We may be pressing pants again.

Movie Connections:

References Miracle in the Rain (1956)

Soundtrack:

Too Marvelous for Words

ILLEGAL (Lewis Allen, 1955) ***

Due to his brush with HUAC, Edward G. Robinson's career suffered throughout the 1950s; I hadn't watched that much of his work from this period myself – but have now managed to catch two (coincidentally, both semi-noirs made for the same director) in one day.

Though actually the second one, this was the superior effort: in fact, I found it to be quite an underrated genre outing – whose courtroom milieu supplies an added treat; for the record, it was the third screen version of a popular play of the 1920s (the others were THE MOUTHPIECE [1932], the best-regarded one, and THE MAN WHO TALKED TOO MUCH [1940]). Robinson is perfectly in his element here as a crusading D.A. who hits the skids after he sends an innocent man (STAR TREK's DeForrest Kelley!) to the electric chair – trying to pick up the pieces as a common civil lawyer, he falls in with a powerful gangster but is ultimately redeemed (in both senses of the word). At this point, the actor must have relished such a meaty part – particularly one that so vividly recalled some of his earlier vintage work (but most of all BULLETS OR BALLOTS [1936], a Robinson vehicle I watched for the first time only recently and greatly enjoyed, and which also sees him playing on either side of the law).

The play was here adapted for the screen by two notable scriptwriters, W.R. Burnett (author of LITTLE CAESAR [1930], which had made the star's name in the first place) and James R. Webb. The supporting cast is also well chosen: Nina Foch as Robinson's diligent assistant and surrogate daughter, who stays on with the D.A.'s office once the hero is disgraced; Hugh Marlowe as another Robinson aide who loves and subsequently marries Foch; Ellen Corby, one more member of Robinson's staff but who devotedly sticks with her boss; Albert Dekker as the gangster figure; and a debuting Jayne Mansfield as Dekker's 'talented' moll (her role reminded me of Marilyn Monroe's celebrated bit in THE ASPHALT JUNGLE [1950], coincidentally drawn from another popular W.R. Burnett novel).

Eventually, the mole in the D.A.'s office – suspected to be Foch due to her ties with Robinson – is discovered to be Marlowe who, when confronted by Foch, she ends up killing him in self-defense; Robinson defies his boss by taking up her case (protecting himself by secreting evidence that would point the finger at Dekker in the event that something happens to him). Though the film is an atypical noir and contains just one action sequence, Robinson's unconventional courtroom tactics are at least as entertaining and arresting: knocking out a burly witness to a brawl so as to prove his unreliability; drinking a dose of slow-acting poison himself in order to smash the new D.A.'s case against his client (an associate of Dekker's); at the end turning up in court mortally wounded to acquit Foch. By the way, a handful of paintings from Robinson's personal renowned art collection are passed off as Dekker's in the film!

Warners' exemplary DVD – issued as a double-feature, as part of their "Film Noir Collection Vol. 4", with Don Siegel's even better THE BIG STEAL (1949) featuring the great team of Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer – contains the trailer, an Audio Commentary (an extra I used to lap up in the past but haven't listened to one in a long time – chiefly due to time constraints and a huge backlog of films!) as well as two featurettes. One discusses the film proper (all-too briefly) and the other a vintage TV piece in black-and-white, hosted by the ubiquitous Gig Young, about courtroomers produced by Warners (with clips from the Oscar-winning THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA [1937] and two 'brand-new' efforts – Otto Preminger's THE COURT-MARTIAL OF BILLY MITCHELL [1955], which I haven't watched, and, of course, ILLEGAL itself with even a brief contribution from Edward G. Robinson).