What a shame that the great Lee Tracy was toiling in low rent pictures like this when he should've been a big star in his very prime at this stage in his career. There are glimpses of his motor-mouthed talent in the courtroom scenes and there is some electricity in his terse, mutually contemptuous confrontations with tight-lipped mob boss Eduardo Ciannelli, but the script is subpar and the editing (particularly during the climax) is downright dreadful. The film has no grab or soul and Tracy's moral reversal rings terribly false.
Review of Criminal Lawyer
