Wise Watch: Criminal Court (1946)

Watched:  01/29/2026

Format:  A shady Russian website

Viewing:  First

Director:  Robert Wise

I have to assume this 62 minutes flick was a B-movie in the classic sense.  The term originated not to mean a cheesy movie, but the way movies *used* to work was that you would basically pay to enter the theater any time that night, and there would be the feature movie, or A-movie.  But there would also be cartoons, newsreels, etc...  and a B-movie.  And that generally meant a cheaper feature film that was not as full of stars, big sets, etc...  And usually it had a shorter run-time.  Some of those B-movies were very popular, after all - people were still trying.*

This movie feels almost like it should be part of a series, but it's not.  There are characters who we just know as "types", so it feels like you've just walked in during the first Season 2 episode of an ongoing show.  It stars Tom Conway as a Matlock-like defense attorney who is prone to in-court antics that would more likely land him in jail than get his clients exonerated.  In fact, to prove one guy is not a credible witness, he fakes a breakdown and wields revolver in court, threatening people.

Unless that's an approved method on the bar exam.  You lawyers let me know.

Conway's running for DA, but not all that invested in it.  He's currently defending a guy framed for murder by some mobsters.  His girlfriend (Martha O'Driscoll) takes a job at the club where the main mobster (Robert Armstrong) works - she's a singer and she's trying to become a featured performer.  Conway is progressive and won't tell his lady love what she can and can't do, so off she goes.

However, Conway is about to release film of the gang accepting bribes.  Armstrong summons Conway to his club *while* his lady is performing, and there's an incident where Armstrong pulls a gun, drops it, and a bullet kills him.  Conway skedaddles, but then his ladyfriend goes to talk business with Armstrong and is seen over the body - it makes her the suspect.  Why?  CIRCUMSTANCES.  This film is a Swiss Cheese of plot holes.

I won't get too much into what occurs following.  No need to spoil.  

For Robert Wise, he's already doing the thing I noticed about him when I first figured out who he was 20+ years ago - he's moving seamlessly between genres from movie to movie.  Other directors get known as masters of horror, or the art film director or he-who-does-Westerns.  Wise never did that.  He made West Side Story, The Haunting, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Sandpebbles, and seemed to bring a high level of quality to whatever genre he wandered into.   Between 1944 and 1946, he'd always directed a bit of French war propaganda in the guise of an historical epic, a Karloff horror movie, a fairytale-like kids fantasy, and here a court movie.  

And next up is a film noir.  Then, on to Westerns.

This movie feels like a throwback to a pre-War movie complete with crusading DA's and their showgirl girlfriends.  And maybe points the way for Perry Mason to wander onto TV screens, but decidedly more staid. But it's also from an era where people believed in a system where defending criminals could be seen as noble - that was just a genre back then.  But I'm impressed with how Wise just slips right into the crime-court-room movie without blinking.  

*Anyway, that's why you see older movies where the people walk into a theater full of people watching a movie that's already going.  Folks were coming and going all evening - if they came in part-way through a movie, they'd hang out the full loop and watch the first part of the movie they hadn't seen yet.