The People Against OHara

Plot

James Curtayne (Tracy) has retired from criminal law, but when Johnny O'Hara (Arness), a boy from the neighborhood, is accused of a murder, Curtayne takes the case. The boy's parents plead for Curtayne's help, even though they are too poor to pay him a fee.

A man Johnny knew was shot and killed during the night by two people in a passing car. The only witness, from a distance, was a man coming out of a diner. Johnny flees when the cops come to question him. Once the boy is in custody, Detective Ricks (O'Brien) and District Attorney Barra (John Hodiak) explain that a gun owned by Johnny appears to be the murder weapon. And a young punk, Pete Korvac (William Campbell), is claiming that he was Johnny's accomplice in the crime and is willing to testify that Johnny pulled the trigger.

Johnny insists he was working all night, but no one can verify that. What he refuses to tell the authorities, or even his own lawyer, is that he was with Katrina Lanzetta (Yvette Duguay), the young wife of a local gangster known as Knuckles (Eduardo Ciannelli). She has fallen in love with Johnny, but he is determined to protect her honor and her safety.

Curtayne's daughter Ginny (Diana Lynn) didn't want her widower dad to take on such a stressful case because he is a recovering alcoholic. Ginny lives with him, putting her own future with boyfriend Jeff (Richard Anderson) on hold. Curtayne expresses confidence he can handle the strain. He goes to see the Korvac family, trying to learn why young Pete, who has a criminal past, would double-cross Johnny this way. He also visits Knuckles, who knew the victim and is volunteering to help Curtayne, but the lawyer neither trusts nor believes Knuckles and declines his offer.

The case begins to go badly for the defense. Johnny's alibi about being at work proves to be a lie. Pete's chatty testimony is convincing and Curtayne has been unable to rattle him. Curtayne confides in Ricks, his friend, that he is becoming forgetful at inopportune times in court. Desperate, knowing that Johnny's life is on the line, Curtayne not only resumes drinking, he bribes the eyewitness with $500 after learning the man, Sven Norson (Jay C. Flippen), is willing to change his story for a price.

D.A. Barra discovers the bribe. He wins the case, convicting Johnny of murder, then must decide what to do about Curtayne's behavior, possibly seeking to have him disbarred. Curtayne, however, is tipped off by Ricks about the boy's relationship with gangster Knuckles' wife, who is willing to come forward and accept the consequences now that Johnny's been found guilty.

Curtayne tries to set up Knuckles, certain that he is the one behind the murder. He wears a wire for the police, looking for a confession. Instead, it turns out one of Pete Korvac's brothers is the man who did the fatal shooting, and Curtayne ends up at gunpoint. By the time Ricks, Barra and others tailing him can get there to make an arrest, Curtayne ends up fatally shot.

Cast

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned $1,107,000 in the US and Canada and $588,000 elsewhere, resulting in a $22,000 profit.

Critical response

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film "a curiously old-fashioned courtroom drama" that "moved ploddingly". A Variety reviewer wrote, "A basically good idea for a film melodrama [from a novel by Eleazar Lipsky] is cluttered up with too many unnecessary side twists and turns, and the presentation is uncomfortably overlong."

Radio adaptation

The People Against O'Hara was presented on Lux Radio Theatre March 9, 1953. The one-hour adaptation starred Walter Pidgeon.