Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Supelice Dreadfully Boring

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

utgard14 In a small Southern town celebrating Confederate Memorial Day, a young woman (Lana Turner) is murdered. Suspicion quickly falls on her Northern teacher at business school, Robert Hale (Edward Norris), whom she had a crush on. Ambitious district attorney Andy Griffin (Claude Rains) uses this as an opportunity to build a name for himself, not caring about Hale's guilt or innocence. Hale is arrested and tried but the anti-Northern sentiment running through the town guarantees his trial won't be fair.Great role for Claude Rains, who owns every scene he's in as a remorseless politician out to further his career regardless of cost. Edward Norris (Ann Sheridan's first husband) has probably his biggest role as Robert Hale and does a fine job. Film debut of Allyn Joslyn, who plays a slimy reporter colluding with Rains. Pretty Gloria Dickson plays Hale's wife. She has a potent speech at the end. First significant role for Lana Turner. Note the tight sweater which accentuates her...attributes. This is why she was dubbed "the sweater girl" early in her career. The rest of the cast is made up of familiar faces, including Otto Kruger and Elisha Cook, Jr. Loosely based on the real story of Leo Frank, a Jewish man accused of murdering 13 year-old Mary Phagan in Georgia. He was lynched in 1915. The story here keeps antisemitism out of it, instead making it more of a focus on the resentments and prejudices of the South towards the North. Having grown up in the South, I know these sentiments were very real for many even decades after this movie was made. This is a film that examines everything from bigotry to mob mentality and the manipulation of the public by politicians and the media. Sociologically and historically relevant, it's a powerful movie from Warner Bros. with a good cast.

st-shot They Won't Forget may not be the first Hollywood movie to stereotype Southern justice as knee jerk reactionary ( I Am a Fugitive from the Chain Gang) in the sound era but one can see the pattern evolving to this day where the South and the Left Coast still find themselves at odds over interpretation. Strident but sober Forget is one cynical walk down the road of ambition.On Confederate Decoration Day student Mary Clay (Lana Turner in her memorable debut to movie audiences) is murdered at the holiday emptied school. Suspects abound but higher office craving DA Andy Griffin (Claude Rains)and sleazy reporter Bill Brock (Allyn Joslin) form a corrupt bargain to sell papers and get votes by railroading a northern teacher and ignoring other plausible suspects. The defense strikes back by bringing a hot shot lawyer (Hardy Kruger) from up north to defend the teacher and he soon begins to poke holes in the prosecutions case but it fails to defuse the towns white hot anger.With the Leo Frank case as background and then communist writer Robert Rossen about to embark on a career exposing the corrupt underbelly of American society ( All the King's Men, The Hustler) They Won't Forget pulls no punches in its portrayal of southern yokels doing what they do best in Hollywood films, act irrationally with a strong sense of bias. A black janitor is naturally implicated and brow beat to casting suspicion on a bigger fish, a white liberal northerner. Lynching a black would be commonplace but convicting a Yankee of murder might make a man governor and that is just what Griffin has in mind as he enlists the press to help convict.As the power hungry DA Claude Rains goes over the top more than once in a bravura performance that calls for it even if he does at moments find his highly refined British accent wrestling with his southern twang. Edward Norris, Otto Kruger and Joslin's conniving reporter effectively convey their viewpoints while director Mervyn Leroy delivers one powerful scene after another depicting the helpless plight of a suspect with the deck stacked against him. It is a watch that is both unfair and frustrating with an outcome that will leave you drained in which the truly guilty are the victors.

froberts73 Leave it to Warner Bros. to pull no punches. This powerful movie, based on a real case and sticking with the facts, is a stunner. The closer it gets to the end, the more involved you become as you hope for justice to be done.I can't pinpoint any performer as outstanding. They were all outstanding as was LeRoy's no-nonsense direction. No side-tracking, no crapping around with sub-plots. He got to the point immediately and stayed with it.This is an outstanding film. Interestingly it does not, of course, echo the South of today (I live in the South). There are still problems but, for the most part, they are back seat.In schools, prejudice would most likely be laughed out. The races work and play together and, yep, go out on dates together.If there are any KKK nutcases around they would be laughed out of the neighborhood.Back to the movie: Fan-damn-tastic.

james higgins 88/100. Wow, what a powerful story and so very far ahead of it's time. A very unusual film to come out of 1937. I could see it being made 10 years later, or in the 1960's perhaps. Impressive direction by Mervyn LeRoy, Claude Rains is just amazing and gives a very strong performance. Excellent style, superb screenplay. The film creates such a vivid and intense atmosphere and it is so thought provoking. Notable also for the early appearances of Lana Turner and Elisha Cook Jr., both of whom are very memorable. The film is very engrossing throughout and quite unforgettable. I very ignored classic that surprisingly doesn't have more of a following.