Illegal

Earlier this week, I reviewed The Big Steal, and mentioned that it came with another movie on the DVD: Edward G. Robinson in Illegal. Combining these two with The Front Page made a great movie classics weekend.

Robinson plays a brilliant prosecutor who sends an innocent man to the chair (DeForest Kelley!). He can't prosecute any more, and people won't hire him for corporate work, so he winds up defending criminals. Strong drink is involved, as well as socially unfortunate behavior.

I haven't seen Scarlet Street or The Woman in the Window, but I have seen The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (amazing title, isn't it?), in which Robinson plays Dr. C, a psychologist who studies the criminal mind by becoming a criminal mastermind. It seems that Robinson was often cast as an upstanding citizen with a flaw that leads him into a life of crime, rather than a plain gangster.

Bonus: Nina Foche plays Robinson's ward and assistant. She plays my favorite character in An American in Paris - it makes me mad the way Gene Kelley treated her. She does her suffering and devotion act here too, and radiantly.

Extra bonus: Jayne Mansfield.