I should begin by saying that I'm a tremendous fan of Spencer Tracy...second only to Cary Grant. But even having said that, I think this is a very fine film noir which interestingly combines courtroom drama with back alley thugs.Spencer Tracy plays a criminal defense lawyer who demoted himself to civil law after alcoholism took its toll. But then a family he has long known pleads with him to take their son's (a young James Arness) murder case. Tracy starts out strong in court, but his inner doubts soon begin to take their toll and he begins to romance liquor again...and looses the case. But he won't stop, and ultimately proves his client innocent, but at the cost of his life as he is gunned down on a dark street. You'll almost certainly see that coming, but there is a high degree of suspense here.The acting in this film is quite good. Tracy is dependable as he almost always was, and this must have been a difficult film for him, considering his own problems with alcoholism. Maybe that's why he plays it so convincingly. Pat O'Brien plays a cop friend just about the way you'd expect him to. John Hodiak is very good as the District Attorney...too bad his life as an actor was cut short. Diana Lynn, who never really made it big, is very convincing here as the daughter concerned with the pressure her father will be under during the trail, as well as the alcoholism problem.One for the DVD shelf? Yes, if you're a Tracy fan! Maybe, even if you're not.

An excellent performance by Spencer Tracy in "The People Against O'Hara" lifts this all too familiar plot line to a different level. Tracy is an alcoholic who, for the sake of his health and sobriety, becomes a civil attorney, only to be drawn back into criminal work when neighborhood friends need him to defend their son. The son is played by a pre-Gunsmoke, blond James Arness, and it was a pleasure to see him do something besides the one-note Matt Dillon. Diana Lynn does an excellent job as Tracy's protective daughter, and a pathetically young Richard Anderson is her patient fiancé.Tracy's performance drives the film, which is really just an excuse for a character study, and who better to essay it. He beautifully shows the man's torment and loss of abilities. The ending is tense and suspenseful.There is a fine cast, including the above, Pat O'Brien John Hodiak, Eduardo Cianelli, and William Campbell (who in real life was for a time married to Judith Exner, the woman who went public with her affair with JFK).I think Spencer Tracy is always worth watching, and this film is no exception.

but is it a good pattern?I have my doubts.The -of course alcoholic-retired lawyer who redeems his name and his soul by saving an innocent will be the center character of so many courtroom movies that they it's impossible to count them all.Anyway,in "les inconnus dans la maison" ,a French movie of 1941,Raimu had a similar part with desperate case,daughter et al:this Henry Decoin movie was a detective story,from a good George Simenon book.John Sturges's film would rather fall into the film noir category,complete with gangsters , bribes and false evidences .But his treatment verges on faux melodrama (the sobbing parents,the phone call when Tracy asks his daughter's squeeze to marry her,and of course the "moving" finale).the plot is never exciting,being muddled,complicated and mushy (see Johnny's attitude towards his girlfriend:it's worthy of the old folk song "the long black veil" when it lays claim to realism!The judge said "son,what's your alibi/if you were somewhere else/then you won't have to die;we really feel like screaming these lines to the fair knight Johnny)No suspense either.Maybe if we had any doubts about Johnny's innocence ,we could get some chills.The actor's performance is listless -one does not believe his risks his neck-and frankly,Spencer Tracy's is not that much mind-boggling either.

This is a tidy crime drama about a "retired" attorney(Spenser Tracy)dealing with his own unethical behavior. Well written and photographed. An apt group of players support the flawless Tracy: Pat O'Brien, John Hodiak, Regis Toomey, Diana Lynn and James Arness. Worth your attention.