Trial (1955)

Adapted by Don Mankiewicz from his novel of the same name. Set in the late 1940's, Glenn Ford is an instructor at a law school who do to his service in the Second World War has never actually practiced law. A policy change at the institution for which he works necessitates that Ford get some actual court room experience to be able to continue teaching, so he looks for a summer internship among college alumni, and finally finds one with Arthur Kennedy. Kennedy is a splashy lawyer who has just taken a publicity generating pro-bono case defending a Latino youth (Rafael Campos) accused of the rape murder of a teenaged white girl (he had consensual sex with her that day, but the cause of death was natural owing to a weak heart). Kennedy insists Ford handle the court room stuff with the aid of his assistant, and Ford love intrest, Dorothy McGuire, while Kennedy heads out to raise funds for the defence. Turns out that Kennedy is a communist, and not actually interested in saving Rafael Campos, he'd rather the Latino youth be convicted and serve 'the cause' as a martyr, the better with which to raise money, even Campos mother gets into this for a while. It's up to the inexperienced Ford, and of course Dorothy, to try and save Campos's life.

There is some good stuff in this movie, the case is intriguing, and the issues raised fairly provocative, but its also too often flat, and feels padded and unfocused, is this about racism, communist subversion, idealism vs the jaded legal establishment, a little of all of these but not enough of any. Preminger and Kramer did this kind of stuff much better. It tries, but a mixed bag. Fair