Tonight's Movie: The Turning Point (1952)

My first film watched in 2013 was THE TURNING POINT, a title from my Netflix streaming queue with a cast of favorites: William Holden, Edmond O'Brien, and Alexis Smith.

THE TURNING POINT concerns a special prosecutor (O'Brien) and a reporter (Holden) who were childhood friends and are now working together to end organized crime (headed by Ed Begley Sr.) in their hometown.

 The problem grows bigger when the reporter realizes that the prosecutor's cop father (Tom Tully) is on the take from the mob. On a personal level, matters also grow complicated when the prosecutor's assistant and girlfriend, played by Alexis Smith, falls hard for the reporter.

I liked a lot about this movie, starting with the excellent cast. You can't go wrong with this trio of lead actors, and there are a number of other interesting faces in the cast, including Ray Teal as a police captain, Neville Brand and Russell Johnson as hitmen, and a flashy blonde Carolyn Jones as a witness at a hearing.

The police and press versus organized crime is a familiar theme I like, and there are a couple terrific set pieces, including Holden meeting with a terrified witness and the jovial Begley brutally burning down an apartment building where his about-to-be-subpoenaed records are stored. Unfortunately the exciting ending at a boxing match petered out, leaving me disappointed in a conclusion that was too much of a downer. It was a worthwhile movie with several interesting aspects, but ultimately it could have been better.

Although the movie was set in an unnamed city in the midwest, much of the filming was clearly done in Los Angeles, including Holden and Smith going for a ride on the very recognizable Angels Flight Railway also seen in CRISS CROSS (1949).

This 85-minute Paramount film was directed by William Dieterle.

The Netflix print was soft in places but watchable. March 2018 Update: THE TURNING POINT was previously also available at Amazon Instant Video but is currently not available.

May 2018 Update: I had the pleasure of seeing this film again at the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival, in a restored digital print from Paramount Pictures.

2022 Update: THE TURNING POINT has now been released on Blu-ray and DVD by Kino Lorber.  My review of the Blu-ray may be read here.