Knock on Any Door

I think this is a fine movie, with a tremendous performance by Humphrey Bogart. A lawyer -- Bogart -- defends Nick Romano (John Derek), a good boy that turned into a juvenile delinquent when his childhood went bad when his father died...in part due to his lawyer's negligence (Bogart). The older Nick got, the more of a thug he became, although for a while, after he married a sweet girl, it seemed as if things were turning around for him. Eventually, Nick goes on trial for viciously killing a policeman. Bogart's legal strategy is to argue that the slums bred Nick into a criminal. Bogart has a field day in the courtroom scenes...one his strongest performances...in a film produced by his own production company. Reviewer Bosley Crowther called the film "a pretentious social melodrama". Well, it is a social melodrama...a rather liberal one, though I'm not sure why Crowther called it "pretentious". While Bogart's performance is dominant, John Derek's debut is very strong. Unfortunately, I'm not sure Derek ever lived up to this early promise. As he was nicknamed in this film, he was a pretty boy, and as Bogart reportedly told him, that would not be enough. A fine film that might belong on your DVD shelf.

I disagree with other commenters. Though not the best movie, the movie had a point similar to that of "To Kill A Mockingbird." An attorney took on a case and a client he really didn't want. If he loses, his client could die. The stakes are high. In "Knock On Any Door," the attorney had abandoned the father, believing that it was no big deal. His associate didn't take the consequences seriously either. In the long run, not only did the family's father and breadwinner die in prison for a crime he didn't do, but the son felt abandoned and became a hood, eventually dying in the electric chair. If the lawyer had treated this innocent and poor family just as he treated his rich clients, and had given them his best as he did his rich clients, the father and the son may have been saved. The moral is, all people have value, whether poor or old, and when one is entrusted with the care or safety of another, one should treat that life as if it were his own in all cases. Not the best movie, but, when looked at from more than an entertainment perspective, it does its job well. Believe it or not, situation as happened in this movie happen in real life all the time.

I watched this movie because Humphrey Bogart, but had I realized what the movie was about I wouldn't of even bothered. It's amazing that even back then there was an attempt to remove personal responsibility from a persons actions and choices and blame society? It's amazing how issues up today seem to have always existed, history truly does repeat itself when it is not a lesson learned. Newsflash The only person responsible for the choices made by an individual are the individual themselves regardless of the circumstance they find themselves in the power of their own choices lays Within themselves! I'm not sure why bogey chose To make this film is too bad he did it's not society's fault it's his own.

Humphrey Bogart stars in this rather uneven courtroom, flashback-dominated drama as a good-hearted defense attorney standing up for a young man (John Derek) accused of shooting a police officer dead while making an escape attempt. As Bogart fights against a persistent prosecuting attorney placed by George Macready, he tells the jury the story of his client's past. How this man accused of murder and facing the death penalty became the man he is, the sort of things he'd gone through, and all the while, trying to prove his innocence. Basically, Bogart spends most of the time trying to create sympathy for his client. Sympathy that the jury and the audience frankly cannot come to terms with. "Knock on Any Door" is basically a standard courtroom drama picture with an iconic leading man narrating the whole story. It's fairly short, but sort of drawn out at the same time because this whole story of a demented young individual poisoned by the ravages of civilization has been told many times before and in better situations. Filmmakers like Otto Preminger and Sidney Lumet would later go on to prove that when it comes to courtroom dramas, it's better to relate to the killings through word of mouth rather than showing it either as a prologue or a flashback, for it just seems to get in the way and there is far more drama that can be generated by the actors relating to this event none of them have seen. "Knock on Any Door" is a spotty and very uneven courtroom drama with very little to surprise and even less to move the audience. Even the famous and well-acted final sentencing speech done by Bogart does not strike with the impact that one should expect it to. But do not be confused. I am not bashing "Knock on Any Door". I am just simply saying that it's an underplayed, but nevertheless worthy way of spending exactly one hundred minutes of your time. Humphrey Bogart is great as usual, but the problem is that his character is a frankly uninteresting and two-dimensional defense lawyer. Bogart gives the character some charisma, but the writing just generates a recyclable hero. But do not be misled. I am not panning "Knock on Any Door." It works fine for what it is. But if you want to see Humphrey Bogart in a truly charismatic, well-written role, then rent "Casablanca." And if you want a truly well-realized courtroom drama, then set your sights on "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959) and/or "12 Angry Men" (1957).

Well, it actually presaged by one year the tendency of 50s movies to enlighten us as to the innocence of "juvenile delinquents", and the guilt of "society". Bogart gives an okay performance, but everyone else is at best TV-quality. Skip it.

Nick Ray's 3rd film (I believe); his first with Bogey. Bogart is a lawyer and although his part is written a bit hokey, he convinces in the part. Mostly told in a conventional flashback like "A Woman's Secret". Good acting, decent photography. George Macready is excellent as well as the scarred, evil, but ultimately vindicated prosecutor. Though it has some melodrama of the forced variety, it manages to convey a sense of the rough edges around the conventional truth. No real heroes here.

Themes of later Nicholas Ray movies can be seen. Of course, there is "Rebel Without A Cause." There's also a little of his most beautiful movie, "They Live By Night." But it's static and preachy. Humphrey Bogart's preaching works in "The Harder They Fall." Here, it is implausible in its courtroom context. And it's tedious. John Derek is very attractive. It's easy to see how, in real life, he want on to marry three of the most beautiful women of the second half of the Twentieth Century. But he isn't very good. He seems to me sort of stiff. I don't buy him as a street hood, either. The supporting cast, with the exception of the always fascinating George Macready, is pretty bland. When Derek meets the girl he falls in love with, she looks absolutely beautiful, in a very realistic way. But what worked for the Italian neo-realists doesn't work for Ray: We need some stronger supporting performances. It's far from a bad movie. But, given what it could have been, it isn't very good, either. It's didactic, predicable, and too long. And that is a lethal combination.

I know John Derek made some awful movies, but how the heck did they get Humphrey Bogart to make this thing? This makes my top 25 worst movies of all times. If it weren't for Bogart's appearance it would have been a total loss. The writing is corny and the actors don't even do that justice.

Great closing shot but little else. Good luck sticking with it that long. Going in I expected that this early Nicholas Ray effort would probe the themes of youth anguish and alienation present in his classic "REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE" and I suppose it does, but in such an episodic, dramatically stillborn way, it's hard to believe it's even from the same director. The movie keeps backpedaling, flashing back, robbing itself of any momentum. In his opening courtroom remarks, Bogart instructs the jury that the criminal past of the young man on trial for murdering a cop doesn't matter, it's completely irrelevant. Then he proceeds to spend the next hour recounting the youth's cliched life story in long-winded detail, playing up his hard knocks upbringing in gooey, unbelievable fashion. Congratulations to the jury members for staying awake; I sure couldn't. The movie is really just a showcase for the good-looking, young up and comer John Derek, as the heartthrob hoodlum. The camera likes him and he's an ok actor (he would later go on to be more effective in some B level westerns and crime stories) but he lacks depth and often comes across as plastic, doll-like. He's certainly no James Dean. Bogart is really the only other actor here of any note, and he mostly goes through the motions, realizing he can only do so much with a routine script. One of those socially conscious pictures that is just too polite and well intentioned for its own good. Very minor and forgettable. Quite a disappointment from the great Nicholas Ray who made such an impression with movies like "THEY LIVE BY NIGHT", "IN A LONELY PLACE", and "PARTY GIRL".