Nicholas Ray of 'Bigger than Life' fame directed this exciting courtroom drama starring Bogart at the height of his stardom.
Bogart's character acts as a charged up lawyer who takes the case of a disturbed man from the same slums as he, against the wishes of his colleagues. He feels empathy for the young man and also feels guilty for letting the man's father be wrongly put to his death after a botched criminal trial a year beforehand.
The whole film is basically Bogart talking, and Bogart acting his socks off. He's utterly faultless in this movie, and the passion he portrays as he holds the whole courtroom speechless is pretty amazing. There are also scenes interspersed with him talking that show us the story of the criminal's life and how things led up to him being on trial. The film has a tremendous climax and I think this is one hell of an underrated film, partly because I never hear anyone talking about it or mentioning it in lists about Bogart.
One thing I was really interested in was that the quote 'Live Fast, Die Young and Leave a Good Looking Corpse' was first mentioned in this film, going on to become James Dean's iconic line, and I had always believed that Dean himself made up the phrase.
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