The Turning Point (1952)

Directed by William Dieterle; produced by Irving Asher

Amid great fanfare, John Conroy (Edmond O’Brien) arrives in his home town to set up a commission to fight organised crime, specifically the racket run by Neil Eichelberger (Ed Begley). Conroy brings in childhood pal, now a tough and cynical reporter, Jerry McKibbon (William Holden), to help him, along with his own policeman father (Tom Tully). What he doesn’t know, but McKibbon quickly suspects, is that Conroy Senior isn’t really on the side of law and order.

Though the plot reads like standard crime-story fare, The Turning Point rises above the average with excellent direction and fine acting. I think the director is surprisingly little known, considering the quality of much of his work - The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Love Letters (1945), The Portrait of Jennie (1948) – and with whom he worked - numerous times with Jennifer Jones, Paul Muni, Joseph Cotton. (He’d worked with both The Turning Point’s leading men previously.) He began as an actor in Germany, slipped into directing in his native country and eventually returned to finish his career there. By 1952, Dieterle’s best work was behind him, but The Turning Point shows in small measure what he can do.

There is good use of tension throughout the film, such as when some minutes are spent on showing villains torching an apartment building to destroy evidence. The climax is exciting, with an assassin (Neville Brand) tracking his victim at a crowded boxing match.

The script is better than the story. It keeps the viewer guessing as to the outcome. Furthermore, though the investigation in the film seems to rely on information dropping into its lap, the writing shows how one step – or misstep – by the villains leads to another, and how the good guys make use of the propensity of the amoral and immoral to betray one another. In addition, it realistically shows Conroy and McKibbon trading characteristics, as the optimist loses faith, and the cynic regains it.

An oddity, not the fault of the writing, is that O’Brien’s Conroy is implied to be inexperienced in combating crime, a “kid”, as McKibbon calls him, and naïve. McKibbon, on the other hand, plays his mentor, someone who’s seen it all. The casting was, perhaps, mixed up: O’Brien was 37 at the time and looked a bit older; Holden was 34, and looked younger. Tully was but seven years senior to the man portraying his son. This strange element should not detract from the movie, however: the actors are good enough to make themselves believable in their rôles.

(On the subject of roles, Carolyn Jones has her first part in a movie as a blonde gangster’s moll, Russell Johnson (some years away from Gilligan’s Island) and Whit Bissell also have bit parts.)

As well, the movie takes place in an unnamed “mid-western” city, yet use is made of the famous Angels Flight railway in Los Angeles (also seen in Night Has a Thousand Eyes, reviewed on this blog in May.) How viewers could not place the setting on America’s west coast is a mystery.

Regardless of flaws, most of which are unimportant, The Turning Point is an entertaining crime drama, well-acted, well-directed, and undeservedly as little known as its director.