1955 Directed by Lewis Allen
A hugely successful DA goes into private practice after sending a man to the chair -- only to find out later he was innocent. Now the drunken attorney only seems to represent criminals and low lifes.
Edward G. Robinson Nina Foch Hugh Marlowe Jayne Mansfield Albert Dekker Howard St. John Ellen Corby Edward Platt Jan Merlin Robert Ellenstein Jay Adler Henry Kulky James McCallion Addison Richards Lawrence Dobkin DeForest Kelley Clark Howat Stuart Nedd Bess Flowers Archie Twitchell John Albright Chris Alcaide Leon Alton John Alvin Roxanne Arlen Phil Arnold Benjie Bancroft Baynes Barron Don Bender Show All…
Противозаконно, Schakale der Unterwelt, Ilegal, Témoin à abattre, Voi Assassini, Trágica Fatalidade, Беззаконие, 法网枭雄
USANR
San Francisco, California
USA
USA
France12
France
USA
The initial premise (successful DA realises that Dr McCoy is innocent of murder but about to be executed) is a good hook but even for the fifties the notion that this misstep in an otherwise stellar career, would detail it, seems a little OTT.
History has inferred quite heavily that many judges and 'successful' lawyers were well aware that they were directly responsible for jailing innocent men and women. Some were in the wrong place at the wrong time but more a great number were already in the system and it was just 'their time' to go down for a longer stretch, whether guilty or not.
I would imagine that even in the fifties there would be an acknowledgment amongst jurists that such unfortunate, but wholly necessary, anomalies were part of the model that served the US so well.
The rest of this is actually redolent of Better Call Saul and I didn't expect that.
A late career Eddie G vehicle and he expectedly does a great job of carrying this. Decent and enjoyable for what it is. But I prefer the pre-code adaptation of this same material, The Mouthpiece (1932), starring another great in Warren William..
Edward G. Robinson is a District Attorney with a winning record of sending people away. He sends away one too many though, and an innocent man dies in the electric chair (who must have lived and went on to be Dr. "Bones" McCoy of the USS Enterprise). This was almost an anti-capitol punishment film at that point. He decides to go into private practice as a defense attorney, but he slips into dodgy methods to win his cases. He falls in with a gangster (Albert Dekker) and crosses swords and words with the new DA. It all leads up to a big case where his loyalties are divided. Well, not really, his loyalty is clear, but he's tangled up with…
Illegal is nothing revolutionary, but it’s a fairly satisfying low budget noir. It’s got quite a slow pace which admittedly did bore me a bit at times, but overall the story is pretty well strung together.
I watched this as part of my long ongoing venture to watch all of Jayne Mansfield’s filmography. I’ve been reading Eve Golden’s biography, ‘Jayne Mansfield: The Girl Couldn’t Help It’, recently and so far I can thoroughly recommend it. It’s difficult to find detailed factual information on Jayne’s life due to her love of outrageous publicity, but Golden does a fantastic job at trying to separate the fact from the fiction. Reading her biography encouraged me to check out another one of her films…
A very entertaining courtroom melodrama and a rather moving late career vehicle for Edward G. Robinson. The script was co-written by a Robinson favourite, Little Caesar author W.R. Burnett, and the film has a good awareness of the genre history and political import embodied in its star. That means the original Maltese Falcon statuette appears prominently displayed in the DA's office, and it means that the script milks resonances with Robinson's recent embranglement in HUAC hearings as a union activist fellow traveler faced with the spectre of potential blacklisting. The script's more improbable moments are adeptly smoothed over by virtue of Robinson's presence, the film's anchor, as he provides a characteristically excellent performance that conveys both psychological realism and dramatic flair.
Tell us, Mr. Scott, how does it feel to send a man to the chair.
I don't send people to the chair, they send themselves.
Illegal is a film noir with legal drama bits to spice the things a little more. And this is where it shows some weakness, because the plausibility of all the trials is very low. The main character turns them into a complete farce which works for the story, but doesn't make for a good interpretation of a judicial system.
Edward G. Robinson is great in this role. He is introduced as a character of strong sense of justice which fades significantly after an extremely hard case. He also has a very deep relationship with Nina…
Edward G. Robinson is tough district attorney Victor Scott who always wants a win. Even if that means making the most of lesser evidence. One day he puts away an alleged murderer, but when it turns out the man is innocent and Scott is too late to save him from the electric chair he takes stock of his life and career. He quits the district attorney's office and starts a private practice attracting the very people he once swore to put behind bars.
Illegal is completely Robinson's film, nearly everything in the story revolves around his character in some way, but an actor his stature carries that kind of responsibility quite easily. Nina Foch is good as Vic's former colleague…
A late Edward G. Robinson vehicle about corruption. Stronger on the personal stakes and helped by Robinson imposing presence as a man in love with power. The courtroom material is better than the gangster one as it allows for more theatrical showing on Robinson's part. It lacks stronger character around Robinson. Allen direction is efficient, but not very inspired.
The first half hour of 'Illegal' is fantastic. The whole introduction of Edward G. Robinson playing a tough DA, winning cases and how he eventually deals with sending an innocent man (DeForest Kelley!) to his death, before the "actual plot" starts, is really great. Sadly after that, when it becomes less episodic, it also becomes a bit more unfocused and less interesting. Robinson's performance really makes this movie and even though I lost some interest in the story at some point, he plays a fantastic fairly three dimensional main character that absolutely makes 'Illegal' worth seeing. Another reason to see it is young Jayne Mansfield in her first movie playing a supporting part. She's doing a good job and it's nice to see her acting in a more serious movie before her larger than life screen persona (kinda like seeing Marilyn Monroe in 'The Asphalt Jungle').
A fun Edward G. Robinson “B” Noir. Some great sequences and one liners, clever storytelling beats, and interesting twists and turns. Robinson is great as always, proving himself, once again, to be one of my favourite underrated actors from this era. The cinematography is fairly flat with very little Noir-esque photography, but the rest of the films plot and action make up for that. The opening shot is cool, however. The premise is solid but I wish they could have done more with it, or explore his psychology some more. The inciting incident occurs but then it doesn’t haunt him later in the film at all. It’s almost like a plot device to get him from point A to point…
When the world turns to a hell-hole, desperate men must win at all costs. This is central tenet of noir. Men will turn to the dark side in order to claw themselves out of the sewer. But Victor Scott (Edward G. Robinson) is not an occupant of the dirty streets and side alleys. He is a New York District Attorney; he looks down on the malevolent world from up on high. But still he must win at all costs. Damned be morality and the law; winning the case is the thing. And Victor Scott is gifted with the brains to find the angle and showmanship to exploit it. No wonder he has the greatest conviction rate in the city.
But…
In this remake of The Mouthpiece (1932) and The Man Who Talked Too Much (1940), Edward G. Robinson shines in a role performed previously by Warren William and George Brent, acting circles around both of those gentlemen. Yet this third version of Frank J. Collins's play has little else to recommend it beyond an entertaining (and hugely implausible) plot. Robinson is a district attorney who unwittingly sends an innocent man (DeForest Kelley) to the electric chair and resigns his office. He becomes a drunk (for about five minutes), then builds himself a new career as a defense attorney handling at first flat-broke low-lifes and then a high-powered corrupt businessman (Albert Dekker). His courtroom antics on behalf of his client dismay…
