Knock on Any Door (1949)

hyped garbage

Fantastic!

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

If not for the inspired casting of George Macready as DA Kerman,I'd give this no more than 5/10.He's just absolutely smoking as the prosecutor.And if he'd been prosecutor in To Kill A Mockingbird,just imagine how that would've been.Pretty Boy Romano is a poor excuse for a man,and Morton,his atty wastes his time trying to get him off murdering a cop.He was given every opportunity to straighten up and fly right,but as usual,the world owed him an apology for his tough life.He seemed to come from an okay family,but he was bound to associate with the wrong type.Morton was his equal in youth,and you can imagine the kind of youth Atty Kerman had in comparison to Morton,but the two were worthy opponents,the difference being that the law was right,and no matter what Morton argued in Romano's defense,it was a lost cause.This really was Macready's film!

. . . This question from sociopath Nick "Pretty Boy" Romano is the crux of KNOCK ON ANY DOOR. If you paraphrase what Nick's defense lawyer, "Andrew Morton" (Humphrey Bogart) says to the judge before Nick is sentenced to fry on an upcoming "Fri-day" (you can't make this stuff up!), it sounds like this: America's treatment of Her sociopaths is inhumane. Nick says several times that all he really wants to do is to "die young, and leave a pretty corpse." Anyone familiar with the Ethel Rosenberg case knows that electrocution frequently turns the victim into smoldering meat, which is not only NOT pretty, but not very appetizing, either. KNOCK ON ANY DOOR makes it clear that Nick has very little fun terrorizing all the local business and automobile owners with his constant armed thefts. Driving his wife to suicide is very hard on him. Killing his first cop gives Nick the jitters. Therefore, counselor Morton demands that all high school dropouts and first-time felons be tested while they're youths (still "pretty," and Un-fried) to see if they're sociopaths. If they are, Society owes it to them to provide a fatal overdose of something that will allow them to rest easy, "die young, and leave a pretty corpse" WITHOUT going through the trauma of leading a life of crime, followed by 20 years on Death Row, and public burning in the electric chair (or whatever the flavor of the month is on Death Row). After all, as Nick says here, they "didn't ask to get born."

As in THEY LIVE BY NIGHT and later REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, Nicholas Ray explores the life of a troubled youth, driven by fate and circumstance to exist outside societal rules. In this case, John Derek is a fella from the slums, being defended by attorney Humphrey Bogart for the murder of a policeman. The film uses a series of flashbacks to reveal the developing relationship between the two as Bogart tries to reform the boy but his efforts are thwarted by the cold, unfeeling world around them. Even as a bleeding heart liberal, I found the moralizing a bit much, especially in Bogart's pleas to the jury. However, the performances are excellent and the film has a sensitive, poetic rhythm to it. The stylish camera-work by Burnett Guffey (one of the greats) maintains the noir vibe, with some gorgeous sequences. Also, the third act is a courtroom drama that manages to avoid a lot of the predictable tropes. Perhaps too earnest and a tad too slow, but a sorrowful and often beautiful movie.

KNOCK ON ANY DOOR and you'll find a kid like Nick Romano, living in the slums and headed for a life of crime. That's the theory proposed by HUMPHREY BOGART, as a lawyer defending Nick after the boy is on trial for killing a policeman. I tend to agree with Leonard Maltin who calls it a "serious but dated drama" that serves as a star vehicle for JOHN DEREK rather than Bogart in the top-billed lead.Nicholas Ray directs it with authority, keeping it a tense and taut tale of juvenile delinquency and using the flashback technique to keep the narrative flowing smoothly as Bogart builds a sob story defense for the boy before a skeptical but carefully chosen jury.ALLENE ROBERTS is the nice girl Derek can't forget and doesn't want to get hurt by his inability to stay off the mean streets. The juvenile delinquency theme is never handled with as much realism as it would be years later when Nicholas Ray directed James Dean and Natalie Wood in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. JOHN DEREK is almost too clean-cut to be totally convincing as a young hood but he certainly fits the description of "pretty boy".The performances are all top notch, and Bogart is solid and smooth as the lawyer whose own past involved a brush with crime. Unfortunately, the romance between Derek and Allene Roberts seems fabricated and their involvement never seems believable with her character being too sweet and naive.Summing up: Interesting but dated crime drama will satisfy Bogart's fans. The final courtroom scene gives the film a much needed punch and Bogart is at his best in his final plea to the jury. The judge's final decision may come as a surprise to some.