By Richard Harland Smith
Hunt the Man Down
Brief Synopsis
Lawyer uncovers secrets behind a decade-old murder case.
Cast & Crew
Read More
George Archainbaud
Director
Gig Young
Paul Bennett
Lynne Roberts
Sally Clark
Mary Anderson
Alice McGuire, also known as Peggy Lynden
Willard Parker
Burnell "Brick" Appleby
Carla Balenda
Rolene Wood
Film Details
Also Known As
Public Defender, Seven Witnesses
Genre
Crime
Drama
Film Noir
Release Date
Jan
1951
Premiere Information
Los Angeles opening: week of 16 Feb 1951
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 8m
Film Length
6,158ft
(7 reels)
Synopsis
As waitress Sally Clark tallies the night's receipts in a Salinas, California bar, a gun-wielding robber enters and demands money. The theft is interrupted by the bar's dishwasher, loner Bill H. Jackson, who overwhelms the robber. Later, Bill is hailed as a hero, but the resulting publicity leads to his re-arrest for murder. Twelve years earlier, Bill, whose real name is Dick Kincaid, was accused of murdering Dan Brian, but escaped during his trial in Los Angeles. After he is assigned a public defender, Paul Bennett, Dick relates how he became a murder suspect: In 1938, in a Los Angeles bar, Dick, an aspiring pianist, meets three young couples and an apparently single woman, Joan Brian, then attends a private party with them. While Dick dances with Joan, her husband Dan suddenly appears and acts jealous of Dick. Later, the now-drunk Dan corners Dick in a bedroom and, after accusing him of being Joan's lover, draws a gun. Dick grabs the gun and tosses it on the bed, and the two men brawl. The fight is soon stopped by the seven other guests, and as Dick leaves, he states angrily that he might have killed Dan. The next morning, Dan is found shot dead in his bed, with his gun lying next to him. Because Dick's fingerprints are still on the gun and he does not have a solid alibi, he is indicted. During his trial, all seven partygoers testify that they did not see Dan's gun on the bed, but did hear Dick's threat. Sure that he will be convicted, Dick escapes when his guard suffers an attack and collapses in a deserted hallway. In the present, Dick concludes his story, and Paul offers to talk to the district attorney's office about a plea bargain. When Paul reports to Dick in prison that he has been offered a manslaughter charge, Dick insists on proving his innocence, even though the devoted Sally worries that he may be found guilty of the more serious charge. Realizing that the key to the case lies in the testimony of the seven witnesses, Paul recruits his father Wallace, a retired policeman, to help track them down. The first witness they find is Burnell "Brick" Appleby, a blind veteran who operates a book binding store. Appleby adds nothing to his previous statements and tells Paul that his girl friend, Pat Sheldon, another witness, died during the war. The next witness Paul and his father locate is Kerry McGuire, a hopeless alcoholic. The intoxicated Kerry tells Paul only that, after the trial, he divorced his wife Alice, who now works in a show somewhere in Los Angeles. As soon as Paul leaves, however, Kerry rushes to make a phone call. Paul soon discovers that Alice has assumed the name Peggy Lynden and works as a puppet master's assistant. After admitting that she suffered a breakdown before the womanizing Kerry left her, Alice nervously reveals that Dan's wife Joan married one of the witnesses, Walter Long, a year after Dan was murdered. She then offers to pass on the Longs's new address when she returns home. Wallace, meanwhile, finds the suddenly flush Kerry drunk in a bar and persuades him to take a drive. Wallace is followed by two thugs, who shoot into his car, killing Kerry. Although wounded, Wallace fires back, and the thugs suffer a fatal crash. Apprised by his father that the thugs were employees of racketeer Packy Collins, Paul interviews Collins, but he claims no knowledge of Dan or Kerry. While at Collins' office, Paul receives a call from Alice, who is about to give him the Longs's address when a man breaks into her apartment and attacks her. Paul alerts the police, saving Alice's life, and later gets hold of the address. The wealthy Longs, however, deny they had an affair or were being blackmailed by Kerry. The last witness to be questioned is Rolene Wood, Walter's former girl friend, who is now living in Tucson. To Paul's dismay, Rolene is mentally ill and talks incoherently about Pat Sheldon, her roommate at the time of the murder. Despite Paul's lack of new evidence, Dick's trial begins. After Appleby testifies, Paul offers to drive him to Pat's grave and is shocked when the blind man lays flowers on a stranger's grave. Paul questions Pat's father, who admits that he lied to Appleby about Pat's death, because he did not want to break the veteran's heart after Pat married another man. Deducing that Pat married Collins, Paul calls her as a witness. Paul reveals that Pat was dumped by Dan, her fiancé, prior to his marriage to Joan and intimates that she was being blackmailed by Kerry, with whom she later had an affair. Despite Paul's statements, Pat sticks to her story until Rolene walks into the courtroom. Paul tricks Pat into believing that Rolene is there to expose Pat's activities on the night of the murder, and Pat finally confesses to Dan's murder. Later, after Sally and Dick thank Paul for his hard work, Wallace asks his son for a permanent job.
Director
George Archainbaud
Director
Cast
Gig Young
Paul Bennett
Lynne Roberts
Sally Clark
Mary Anderson
Alice McGuire, also known as Peggy Lynden
Willard Parker
Burnell "Brick" Appleby
Carla Balenda
Rolene Wood
Gerald Mohr
Walter Long
James Anderson
Dick Kincaid, also known as Bill H. Jackson
John Kellogg
Kerry McGuire
Harry Shannon
Wallace Bennett
Cleo Moore
Pat Sheldon, also known as Mrs. Packy Collins
Christy Palmer
Joan Brian Long
Paul Frees
Packy Collins
James Seay
Prosecutor
Herb Vigran
Salesman
Sim Simone
Theatrical agent
Alan Bridge
Ulysses Sheldon
William Forrest
J. P. Knight
Ed Dearing
Deputy in corridor
Vince Barnett
Joe, pool player
Michael Barrett
Eddie
Jack Deery
Butler
Howard Mitchell
Bartender
Iris Adrian
Marie
Charles Sullivan
Hood
Al Hill
Hood
Bob Cavendish
Dan Brian
Dick Elliott
Proprietor of Happy's Place
Ken Terrell
Holdup man
Frank Cady
Puppet master
John Butler
Neighbor
Charles Conrad
Crook
John Hedloe
Intern
Ralph Montgomery
Police officer
Bert Kennedy
Waiter
Jack Gargan
Assistant attorney
Luther Crockett
Judge Spears
Lee Phelps
Bailiff
Don Dillaway
Assistant deputy
Ray Walker
Detective
William Haade
Mira Mckinney
Crew
James Altwies
Set Decoration
C. Bakaleinikoff
Music Director
Samuel E. Beetley
Film Editor
James Casey
Assistant Director
Michael Cisney
Dialogue Director
Albert S. D'agostino
Art Director
B. G. Desylva
Composer
Walter E. Keller
Art Director
Nicholas Musuraca
Director of Photography
Clem Portman
Sound
Lewis J. Rachmil
Producer
Sid Rogell
Executive Producer
Francis Sarver
Sound
Paul Sawtell
Music
Devallon Scott
Writer
Darrell Silvera
Set Decoration
Film Details
Also Known As
Public Defender, Seven Witnesses
Genre
Crime
Drama
Film Noir
Release Date
Jan
1951
Premiere Information
Los Angeles opening: week of 16 Feb 1951
Production Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Distribution Company
RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 8m
Film Length
6,158ft
(7 reels)
Articles
Hunt the Man Down (1951) -
After appearing in support of such Hollywood leading men as Errol Flynn, John Wayne, John Garfield, and Glenn Ford, Gig Young was allowed to take the lead in the RKO Radio Pictures' crime drama Hunt the Man Down (1950) - but the star attraction remains the evocative cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca and the streets of Los Angeles themselves. Young plays an idealistic defense attorney (the film's working title was Public Defender) committed to clearing a fugitive from justice (James Anderson, later the bigot Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird [1962]) from a standing charge of murder and compelled to sift through a backlog of past testimony. Among the original witness are Gerald Mohr (radio's Philip Marlow), Willard Parker (The Earth Dies Screaming [1964]), John Kellogg (Gorilla at Large [1954]), and blonde bombshell Cleo Moore (Hold Back Tomorrow [1955]) while helpers and hindrances to the cause include Harry Shannon (Citizen Kane [1942]) as Young's one-armed right hand man and "Man of 1,000 Voices" Paul Frees, as a racketeer. Hollywood trade papers had announced Richard Fleischer as the film's director but when Hunt the Man Down had its premiere in December 1950, the production was signed by George Archainbaud, on hiatus from helming episodes of The Lone Ranger.
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Hunt the Man Down (1951) -
After appearing in support of such Hollywood leading men as Errol Flynn, John Wayne, John Garfield, and Glenn Ford, Gig Young was allowed to take the lead in the RKO Radio Pictures' crime drama Hunt the Man Down (1950) - but the star attraction remains the evocative cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca and the streets of Los Angeles themselves. Young plays an idealistic defense attorney (the film's working title was Public Defender) committed to clearing a fugitive from justice (James Anderson, later the bigot Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird [1962]) from a standing charge of murder and compelled to sift through a backlog of past testimony. Among the original witness are Gerald Mohr (radio's Philip Marlow), Willard Parker (The Earth Dies Screaming [1964]), John Kellogg (Gorilla at Large [1954]), and blonde bombshell Cleo Moore (Hold Back Tomorrow [1955]) while helpers and hindrances to the cause include Harry Shannon (Citizen Kane [1942]) as Young's one-armed right hand man and "Man of 1,000 Voices" Paul Frees, as a racketeer. Hollywood trade papers had announced Richard Fleischer as the film's director but when Hunt the Man Down had its premiere in December 1950, the production was signed by George Archainbaud, on hiatus from helming episodes of The Lone Ranger.
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of this film were Public Defender and Seven Witnesses. Although December 1949 news items reported that RKO bought a story by Thames Williamson entitled "Hunt the Man Down," Williamson's story is not related to this film. Richard Fleischer was first slated to direct the picture, according to Hollywood Reporter news items.
