Twilight of Honor (1963) User Reviews

Dr. Kildare Goes to Court

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 3 March 2006]

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.

Twilight of Claude Rains

[marcslope · 6/10 · 23 February 2015]

OK courtroom drama from Perlberg-Seaton, with MGM capitalizing on Richard Chamberlain's TV success by casting him as a rather Kildare-like defense attorney. He's recently widowed, and he's given the unenviable job of defending sleazy-but-polite Nick Adams, who's already confessed, twice, to murdering Pat Buttram, a well-liked local politico who was trying to make time with Adams' sluttish wife, Joey Heatherton. Chamberlain's OK, and so are the courtroom exploits, with a screenplay that seems to delight in pushing the envelope a bit in terms of sexual conversation circa 1963. There's discussion of impotence, sleeping nude, and prostitution, and several sequences of Joey Heatherton twitching luridly next to a jukebox. But the best reason to watch is Claude Rains, as Chamberlain's former professor and current legal adviser. He looks genuinely unsteady and hasn't many good lines, but it's a beautiful, modest, underplayed performance. Joan Blackman is on hand as his daughter, to provide the rather tepid romantic interest, and Jeanette Nolan is good (when wasn't she) as Buttram's protective widow. The flashback format is unwieldy, and Boris Sagal directs it like it's a big TV show, but it keeps your interest pretty steadily, especially as a barometer of what was and wasn't permissible on screen in1963.

Important things about this movie

[jpileggi-1 · 6/10 · 14 May 2014]

The important things to know about this movie are as follows: Claude Rains, even at the end of his career and life, was an exceptional actor. The work he phoned in was superior to 99% of the rest of the world. Second, Nick Adams was a tragic figure. A fine actor who made some really bad career choices and then died of a drug overdose. Third, Richard Chamberlain in his day was not only a heart throb, but a very fine actor. Nice to see him still around and living a life openly that was denied to him when he was young. Fourth, Joey Heatherton (here in her first movie) was hotter then hot. Lastly, this is actually a pretty good movie. In many respects, it is a poor man's "Anatomy of A Murder", but it does hold up pretty well 50 years later. The courtroom stuff blends back and forth with the scenes leading up to the crime told in recall. Adams got a Best Supporting Actor nomination out of it and the rest of the cast does a professional and workman-like job, director and writer included. All in all, a nice diversion on TCM with no commercials.

MGM launches Richard Chamberlain into the movies

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 3 October 2009]

TV's Dr. Kildare, Richard Chamberlain, a huge matinée idol back in the '60s, was given "Twilight of Honor" by MGM to cash in on his popularity and make him into a movie star. To do that, they gave him excellent support in the form of Claude Rains, Nick Adams, James Gregory, Jeanette Nolan, Honor Blackman, and Pat Buttram. The result by today's standards isn't very hard-hitting, though it's certainly well acted. The film is directed by Boris Sagal, who did a lot of television, and as a movie, it isn't as good as "Anatomy of a Murder," from which the script is pretty much ripped off.

Chamberlain plays a young attorney and widower, David Mitchell who's assigned a rotten case, that of an unstable soldier accused of murdering one of the small New Mexico town heroes, and he's confessed - twice. The special prosecutor (Gregory) is hoping to sweep into political office with the case, and the judge sides with him through most of the trial. Mitchell turns to the distinguished attorney and his friend, Art Harper, who is ill but nonetheless is full of fire and gives Mitchell some guidance. The defense is a New Mexico law that allows a man to kill because of adultery, something the victim's widow (Jeanette Nolan) and his friends would like to keep quiet.

Joey Heatherton plays the slutty wife of Nick Adams, and she gives a very overt performance. Nick Adams, who would die of an overdose five years later, has a good role and does an excellent job; it earned him an Oscar nomination, and he allegedly spent over $8,000 advertising to win it. He lost to Melvyn Douglas. Jeanette Nolan is lovely and serene as the victim's wife. Claude Rains in one of his last films is marvelous. He looks unwell but his acting is wonderful. Richard Chamberlain even then had a strong enough talent to hold his own against the more experienced actors. As David, he's passionate and determined. Although in the last 46 years, he's had a decent film career, certainly it doesn't compare to his King of the Miniseries crown or some wonderful stage work, including Night of the Iguana and My Fair Lady, both of which I saw and loved. As a baby boomer, he has a special place in my heart.

This film was probably intended for the teen crowd, Chamberlain's fan base, which is why there's a lot of talk about sex but no real action.

young lawyer (Richard Chamberlain) defends a young rebel (nick adams) accused of murder.

[dougbrode · 7/10 · 20 March 2006]

This is the infamous film for which Nick Adams was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Oscar owing to his spending a great deal of his own money and time campaigning. He had promised best friend, actor Robert Conrad, that he was going to be the first TV actor to get a nomination and he did, after sparing no effort to browbeat Academy members. According to Hollywood legend, he even invited a bunch to his home for a big party and then fell asleep just as they arrived. Also, he was supposedly dumbfounded when Melvyn Douglas received the award for his old cowboy in Hud. Adams is okay, nothing more, in this film - he actually should have campaigned for another film he did that year, The Hook with Kirk Douglas, because that was his best role ever in a film. Here, he wears a black leather jacket and does a James Dean routine (they were in Rebel Without a Cause together, Dean with the lead, Adams with one line) as a misunderstood loner he gets accused of murder. His love interest, a wild child, is played by Joey Heatherton, who had been depressed ever since her father, TV's Merry Mailman, refused to let her play the title role in Lolita - which is pretty much what she does here, only doing so after Tuesday Weld passed up the part in this film. Richard Chamberlain, in his bland leading man days before he learned to act by doing Hamlet in London, is the defense lawyer, Joan Blackman his classy girlfriend, and the great Claude Raines provides the real reason for watching as an older lawyer. Watchable but routine, and not very different from any halfway decent TV lawyer show of the time except that it runs twice as long.

A few problems, but overall a decent courtroom film; Claude Rains shines

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 18 May 2014]

The story line here is quite good. A very troubled young man (Nick Adams) marries a floozy (Joey Heatherton), and a sleaze ball (Pat Buttram) ends up dead. Both are sent to trial for murder, but the case against the woman is dropped. Richard Chamberlain is appointed as the defense counsel, while James Gregory is the prosecuting attorney. Through twists and turns, the majority of the film is spent in the courtroom at the trial.

This was Claude Rains' next-to-the-last film. He's clearly not well here, but still did a terrific job in his own twilight as a sort of coach to the defense attorney.

It seems to me that you have to divide Richard Chamerlain's performance into two distinct parts. When he's in the courtroom, and when he's not. I think he does fairly well when he's not in the courtroom, but in the courtroom I think he overacted...perhaps based on the film's director (?).

Joey Heatherton gets a lot of attention because of this, her debut film, but Joan Blackman as the once girlfriend of Chamberlain actually puts in a better performance.

I always think of Nick Adams as a television actor, not one that was really cut out to be on the big screen. After watching this film -- in which he does "okay" as the defendant -- I still think he was best suited for television.

James Gregory deserves mention here (as the prosecutor). Gregory always overacted...but there was something interesting about the way he overacted. Almost always an actor that was fun to watch.

Pat Buttram plays a sleaze ball here...and is not impressive while doing so. Jeanette Nolan has a decent role as his wife. Edgar Stehli is great as an old judge.

While I'm not sure that the verdict is logical, it makes an interesting film -- good, but not great. Worth a watch...once.

If Too Swift, Justice Can't Be Too Sure.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 6 August 2012]

You probably know how the TV series "Law and Order was structured. The first half dealt with two detectives tracking down the criminal. The second half took us into the DA's office where legal issues were discussed, culminating in a condensed version of a trial. "Twilight of Honor" is like the second half of "Law and Order." I'ts fast paced and mostly dispassionate, except for whatever passions are generated by the judicial process itself.

Not that "Twilight of Honor" in any way copied "Law and Order." It couldn't have. The movie was released more than twenty years before the TV series. If there is a source for "Twilight of Honor", it's likely to have been "To Kill A Mockingbird", which came out the year before, or even "Anatomy of a Murder," from 1959. Both were commercially and critically successful too, and generic success can be a powerful motivator.

The earlier films were softer, though. One was seen from a child's point of view and the other was an extended character study. This one doesn't fool around with sentiment. It's tense all the way through and wastes no time. Example: Claude Raines, in his last movie, is the dropsical and avuncular mentor to brash but uncertain lawyer Richard Chamberlain. They get together in the evenings to discuss the process of the case, and Chamberlain's next moves in trying to defend prisoner Nick Adams on a charge of murder. Late one night, Raines stretches and says, "I wonder who registered the two-room suite at that motel." Cut. It's the next day and Chamberlain is holding the receipts from the motel and challenging a witness. No tedious scene in which he visits the motel and has to wangle the registration forms from the reluctant man behind the desk.

Director Boris Sagal (Katy's dad) rushes the emotion too much. People shout at each other too early in the story, so that there's little sense of pressure building. It's simply there, constantly. Raines doesn't have many scenes and seem old and sadly fagged out, as is his character. Richard Chamberlain plays it straight and he's not bad. (He was quite good in "The Last Wave.") Something seemed to keep him bound to television or minor movies. Maybe he was too blandly handsome or too gay.

James Gregory is the ambitious District Attorney and he plays the only role he's ever played, the pompous, indignant, blatherskite gascon. He does it so well that he's funny, as in "The Manchurian Candidate." Nick Adams seems as lost as his character. Chamberlain has a love interest. He's just coming down from the death of his wife and gradually develops an attraction for Raines' daughter, Joan Blackman, who is pretty but cannot act. Joey Heatherton is Adams' sluttish wife who does sexy solo dances at juke joints just to watch the men gawk at her. And can she DO it too. I'd be one of the gawkers. The movie could have used more of her.

The movie is curiously structured. We begin by knowing nothing about the case, and we're filled in my shimmering flashbacks during interviews with the principals. It doesn't quite work because the flashbacks are introduced in any linear way. They seem patched together.

Yet it's not a terrible movie. You won't finish it feeling that it was a complete waste of time, only with a vague sense that, with a bit more care, it could have been considerably better than it is.

New Mexico, where the story is set, is an odd state. It no longer has the death penalty. The top half of the state, centered around artsy Santa Fe and the resorts at Taos, are reasonably liberal. The southern half, where I live, votes conservative. There are many Hispanics in the south and they're liberal but they don't turn out to vote in vast numbers.

Great Joey Heatherton Film

[whpratt1 · 6/10 · 3 March 2006]

Always enjoy viewing this film mainly because Joey Heatherton's father was a mail man and delivered the mail to my home at the time in Nassau County, Long Island, New York. Richard Chamberland,(David Mitchell),"The Pavilion",'99, was a lawyer in this picture and wound up having to defend Joey Heatherton's (Laura Mae Brown), husband from a crime he was accused of performing on a police officer. The police officer was found not breathing in the bed in which Laura Mae shared herself. Laura is a very sexy hot to trot gal and performs all sorts of wild movements with her body in a bar next to a classic jukebox in the 1960's. Claude Rains,(Art Harper),"The Invisible Man",'33 makes a brief appearance and adds a good supporting role. This is a very entertaining film in Black and White and held my interest from beginning to the very end.

Solid Courtroom Drama

[drednm · 17 April 2020]

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.

joey Heatherton's role

[kenn_honeyman · 6/10 · 17 September 2006]

i know her Dad had a TV show,kinda like "Mr. Rogers", where he played a mailman... didn't know he WAS a mailman.... I saw Ms. Joey in '65?... at an U.S.O. show... she was HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!Minnie skirt, et al! In this movie-i bet this was where she got her 'moves' !!!

Nick Adams was GREAT in this role.... BUT "Hud" was 'HOT' that year, and Mr. Douglas deserved his due;he had never won an Oscar up till then-he did again in '79 for "Being There"... I wouldn't think Mr. Adams would have committed suicide over this 'slight'... he must have known how the 'Academy' worked,at least, back then!....

But having 9 speeding tickets in one year spells trouble!

A Good Courtroom Drama

[Handlinghandel · 5/10 · 7 March 2006]

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.

Nick Adams and Joey Heatherton

[pauljorofino · 10/10 · 19 July 2009]

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.

Would-be 'shocking' dialogue digressions litter rote star-vehicle

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 17 May 2014]

Richard Chamberlain, then-hot from TV's "Dr. Kildare", plays a green defense attorney who takes on a supposedly-unwinnable murder case in court, aided by creaking legal legend Claude Rains. Adaptation of Al Dewlen's novel plays like a junior-league variation of "Anatomy of a Murder"...one without the necessary bold, unflinching talent up-front to make even a mild impression. Rains certainly helps, and slithering Joey Heatherton has a silly but standout supporting role; otherwise, Chamberlain is inherently too soft to carry such a scenario, and the screenplay, dotted with sexual details delivered with whacking emphasis, is (almost amusingly) overripe. *1/2 from ****

Twilight of Honor Can Be Put to Bed **1/2

[edwagreen · 5/10 · 4 October 2009]

Everyone in town is ready to lynch Nick Adams for the killing of an elderly,respectable gentleman. Problem is that the old guy had gone somewhat off his rocker and had become a sexual pervert in his older years. Even his wife admits this.

Richard Chamberlain plays the widower lawyer assigned to defend Adams. He goes to Claude Rains for advice. If Raymond Massey had this part, it would be Kildare in the attorney mode.

Joey Heatherton plays a tramp here, but her efforts are minimal. With a wife like her, no wonder Adams, who surprisingly received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor, has gone off.

Of all people, Pat Butram plays the old sexual crow.

James Gregory gives a good performance as the prosecuting attorney, and sometimes acts as he did so famously as Angela Lansbury's idiotic senator-husband in "The Manchurian Candidate," the year before.

The picture becomes one of at first pleading guilty due to seeing your wife have sex with Butram and acting accordingly. Eventually, it becomes one of self-defense. The picture is awfully tedious at times.

Richard Chamberlain

[williwaw · 8/10 · 17 March 2011]

Richard Chamberlain was as big a star as MGM ever had when Chamberlain was TV's Dr. Kildare. Chamberlain had an iron clad 7 year contract, and MGM kept him busy both on TV and in movies, and his first movie was the western A Thunder of Drums billed far below George Hamilton and Luana Patten. After his rocket to fame, MGM starred Richard Chamberlain in this first rate court room drama Twilight Of Honor to cash in on Chamberlain's tremendous popularity. In his Dr. Kildare days Chamberlain is reported to have gotten 15,000 fan letters per week more than Clark Gable ever got in his heyday as King of the MGM Lot. MGM in those days was the premier movie studio and this film reflects the quality production values the MGM studio gave its films. The production team of Perlberg/Seaton were assigned this film and cast along with Chamberlain a true star and class act Claude Rains. Nick Adams also stars. Quality film.

One of the worst of courtroom melodramas.

[MOscarbradley · 3/10 · 12 October 2020]

It's superbly photographed in black and white Panavision by Philip Lathrop which is about the only thing you can say in favour of this turgid courtroom melodrama. "Twilight of Honor", which came out in 1963, was poorly written, poorly directed and poorly acted with Richard Chamberlain as the inexperienced young lawyer roped into defending Nick Adams on a murder charge, knowing the case is strongly rigged against him. He gets a former old pro lawyer, (Claude Rains, in his penultimate movie), to help him, leading to every cliche in the book.

This is one of the least believable of all courtroom movies. Adams was inexplicably nominated for an Oscar for his performance and it's hard to believe the appallingly wooden Chamberlain actually had a career after this. Still, a lot of people think quite highly of the picture which perhaps only goes to show that courtroom movies are exceedingly popular even when they aren't any good. This is one of the worst.

This is one of the best films, I have ever seen.. AAAA++++!!

[jflash2000 · 10/10 · 14 March 2003]

I found this movie to be very original, and gripping. You will not find many movies, in present memory, that keep you on the edge of your seat in every scene. I would recommend it to anyone! You will not be disappointed!

Woefully underrated

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 18 August 2023]

"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.

What lies beneath.

[ulicknormanowen · 12 April 2024]

This is an interesting thriller , notable for one of the last appearances by Claude Rains , as an aging ailing attorney who comes to the rescue of youthful colleague Chamberlain. This is quite derivative , "autopsy of a murder " all over again...The brilliant young lawman has become a cliché. But Rains can survive a cardboard role.

On the other hand ,the supporting characters are more absorbing :Ben, the brave soldier , who appears first as a crude brute with a whole town against him ; little,by little,the viewer sides with him ,this man who has got a raw deal and who is overtaken by events; his wife is a nymphomaniac ,who recalls Dorothy Malone in " written on the wind" .Cole and Amy Clinton make an odd couple , the former first hailed as the beloved citizen before one reveals his true colors ; the character of the wife should have been more developed , being more ambiguous and interesting than the female lead , just in it to secure a happy end.