Trial (1955)
The film is directed by Mark Robson, who is known for his even-handed sarcasm, and it is an entertaining vintage claptrap.
It’s worth seeing for two contrasting performances: Glenn Ford as David Blake, a law professor who faces losing his job unless he gets some real courtroom experience during his summer break; and Arthur Kennedy as Barney Castle, the high-talking wheeler-dealer lawyer who agrees to use Blake as the trial defence attorney in the case of Angel Chavez (Rafael Campos), who is accused of murder.
The local lynch mob appears; thanks to quick talking by Blake and Castle, they are able to persuade the sheriff to talk the mob around with the promise that Angel will be legally hanged – something that the DA (John Hodiak), a local hero type, is happy to go along with, despite the fact that he clearly believes the case is a sham.
The chosen judge is black – Judge Theodore Motley (the brilliant Juano Hernandez) – who knows he’s presiding over a horrific scenario; the jury selection procedure takes almost the whole middle third of the film because the local politics are so tough to disentangle.
Meanwhile, Castle has another purpose; he’s the money-grubbing, cause-promoting arm of various pseudo-communist groups searching for a new martyr to inflame the Civil Rights movement. Blake is astounded, astounded! Castle sleazily bilks the audience of fellow travellers at a fundraising rally in one odiously orchestrated scenario.
Blake is summoned to testify before a poorly disguised version of the HUAC, led by a publicity-hungry Senator dubbed “Battle,” the second this is released. Because of his trial obligation, Blake opts out of the testimony. The prosecution’s case is so weak. Blake is on the verge of success when Castle, having seemingly determined with his colleagues that Angel is better off as a dying martyr than a living wetback, compels Blake to put Angel on the stand, a sure-fire method to have him ripped apart by the prosecution.
This is a liberal dream in which the protagonists are well-defined centrists battling fascists on the right and communists on the left. Although the local Klan members are considered as so subhuman that they are hardly a worry, the most of the contempt is directed at the Reds. Dorothy McGuire portrays the young lady who cynically divulges her disappointment and agonising expectancy of Blake’s eventual ruin, first as Castle’s secretary and lover and later as Blake’s. Don’t worry, Glenn Ford and Juano Hernandez rescue the world in one of Hollywood’s most famously ridiculously flawless endings.
