Alcoholic lawyer sobers up to defend friend in murder case. James Ragan, a brilliant criminal lawyer is fed up with his lucrative practice and longs to retire to a quiet judgeship, but his reputation for legal, if not always ethical, courtroom tricks sidetracks his desire and he continues with his chosen profession. Afrer several exciting (and episodic) cases, requiring all his talents, including defending his personal bodyguard, "Moose" Hendrcks on a murder charge,he eventually get an appointment and becomes known as Judge Ragan. Pat O'Brien stars in this B film programmer as a most successful criminal attorney well aware that he's called shyster behind his back and occasionally to his face. As we see in the film this man has a lot of tricks up his sleeve to get clients off. But he'd really like to become a judge and leave it all behind. <br/><br/>His skills are way to valuable and the best scenes in the film are those with the extralegal methods he uses to gain acquittals. He's got a nice team of associates including secretary Jane Wyatt, office boy Marvin Kaplan, and general factotum Mike Mazurki. He also has an ambitious and treacherous associate in Robert Shayne who wants to take over.<br/><br/>O'Brien's unsavory reputation has also kept him from the bench as the Bar Assocation and the white shoe lawyers that run it like Carl Benton Reid keep O'Brien from the judgeship. Then when Reid has need of O'Brien he has a miraculous conversion in his thinking.<br/><br/>Mazurki stands out in this film one of his best performances and he too needs O'Brien in the end. His best scene is with Wyatt when he tells her why he's just become O'Brien's factotum. In the supporting cast the unbilled Mary Alan Hokanson has one great scene with O'Brien as the widow of a man who was killed in a motor vehicle incident that O'Brien gets the driver off.<br/><br/>By the way, the way O'Brien does it is one for the books.<br/><br/>Criminal Lawyer, almost criminal not to watch it. "Criminal Lawyer" is a "B" list programmer that is saved by the performance of Pat O'Brien in the lead role. O'Brien plays criminal lawyer James Reagan who wins his cases in dramatic fashion by employing unethical but legal tricks. He also has a penchant for the bottle.<br/><br/>After getting Vincent Cheney (Mickey Knox), the brother of gangster Harry Cheney (Douglas Fowley) off, Reagan announces that he is giving up his practice with the expectation of becoming a judge. He turns over the firm to his associate Clark Sommers (Robert Shayne) who has been doing all of the preparatory work leading up to Reagan's dramatic entrances at the end of their trials.<br/><br/>Reagan is denied the judgeship by high end lawyers led by Tucker Bourne (Carl Benton Reid) and D.A. Walter Medford (Jerome Cowan) on the grounds that he uses unethical means to win his cases. Disappointed, Reagan turns to the bottle. However, Bourne is forced to come hat in hand to plead with Reagan to defend his nephew Bill Webber (Daryl Hickman) of a manslaughter charge involving a traffic fatality.<br/><br/>Reagan reluctantly takes the case and gets the young man off. While preparing to celebrate, Reagan is confronted at his front door by the widow of the man killed in the Webber case, Mrs. Johnson (Mary Alan Hokanson) who shows him the effects of having freed her husband's killer. Reagan devastated, disappears into the bottle and cannot be found.<br/><br/>Reagan's man Moose Hendricks (Mike Mazurki) fearing the worst goes to confront mobster Harry Cheney. Cheney however turns up murdered and Moose is charged with the crime. Loyal secretary Maggie Pewel (Jane Wyatt), gofer Sam Kutler (Marvin Caplan) and receptionist Gloria Lydendecker (Mary Castle) try to locate Reagan while Sommers begins to try the case. Suddenly a disheveled Reagan turns up and……………………………………….<br/><br/>Pat O'Brien had a long and varied career. He played mostly priests and cops in his Warner Bros. films of the 30s and 40s but goes in a different direction this time around. He portrayal of the boozy lawyer is one of his best. Jane Wyatt has little to do but be ever faithful to her boss. There appears to be a one way attraction going on, however Reagan does not seem interested. His relationship with Moose is something else again and since this was 1951, we can only speculate. The identity of the real murderer is not to hard to figure out which detracts from the film's dramatic finish.<br/><br/>Jane Wyatt would soon go on to appear in the long running TV series "Father Knows Best". Another TV veteran, Amanda Blake appears briefly as a receptionist. Louis Jean Heydt appears as a court reporter.
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