The Turning Point (1952)
The Turning Point is a 1952 American film noir crime film directed by William Dieterle and starring William Holden, Edmond O’Brien and Alexis Smith. It was inspired by the Kefauver Committee’s hearings dealing with organized crime.
Director – William Dieterle
Writers – Warren Duff (screenplay), Horace McCoy (story)
Cast –
William Holden as Jerry McKibbon
Edmond O’Brien as John Conroy
Alexis Smith as Amanda Waycross
Tom Tully as Matt Conroy
Ed Begley as Neil Eichelberger
Danny Dayton as Roy Ackerman
Adele Longmire as Carmelina LaRue
Ray Teal as Clint, Police Captain
Ted de Corsia as Eamon Harrigan
Don Porter as Joe Silbray
Howard Freeman as Fogel
Neville Brand as Red
Carolyn Jones (uncredited) as Miss Lilian Smith
Watch “The Turning Point” (1952)
Plot
John Conroy is a Special Prosecutor, given extraordinary powers to break up the crime syndicate in a large midwestern town; his investigation will focus on Neil Eichelberger and his criminal operation. A local journalist, Jerry McKibbon, is sympathetic to this but feels Conroy isn’t experienced enough to handle the task. Matt Conroy, John Conroy’s father, is a local policeman and is assigned to be his chief investigator.
McKibbon discovers that Matt Conroy is a crooked cop who works for Eichelberger. McKibbon demands that Matt break with the mobster or he’ll inform his son, John Conroy, of the duplicity. To vindicate himself, it is decided that Matt Conroy will procure a damning file from the D.A.’s office that Eichelberger has requested, but he will retain a copy.
Even before this double-cross is exposed, Eichelberger decides to have Matt Conroy murdered in order to instill fear in his operation and show that Eichelberger is in control of the situation, since John Conroy’s investigation is more serious than expected. Matt Conroy is killed during a phony robbery, and his assassin, Monty LaRue, is immediately killed in turn.
John Conroy’s investigation is systematically uncovering Eichelberger’s crimes, and in anticipation of having their books subpoenaed, Eichelberger has the building housing them burned. He has callous disregard for the people renting there, and all are killed. An expose of Matt Conroy’s murder reveals that Eichelberger had LaRue killed also.
His widow Carmelina LaRue can prove this, and contacts McKibbon in order to exact revenge, but is chased away by Eichelberger’s henchmen. Since McKibbon is the only one that can identify Carmelina LaRue, her husband’s murderer, Roy Ackerman, demands that McKibbon be killed, but Eichelberger refuses. Ackerman hires a hit man himself, and McKibbon is lured to a boxing match where he can be shot.
Meanwhile, Carmelina manages to reach John Conroy and her testimony is sufficient, along with already acquired information, to topple Eichelberger. The hired gun shoots McKibbon, and as he lies dying, Eichelberger and his crew are arrested. McKibbon dies before John Conroy can arrive.
John Conroy’s epitaph for McKibbon is something McKibbon himself has previously said: “Sometimes someone has to pay an exorbitant price to uphold the majesty of the law.”