Detective Story (1951)
Directed by William Wyler

Film Review

Adapted from the highly successful 1949 stage play of the same title by Sidney Kingsley, Detective Story is a modern, character-centric crime drama that achieve a rare intensity and dynamism by virtue of the fact that most of the action takes place continuously in one set, a busy urban police station.  Although somewhat dated by the shortcomings in its script (which is occasionally preachy and marred by some jolts of excessive melodrama), the film represents a compelling tour de force for its director, William Wyler, and distinguished cast, headed by a remarkable Kirk Douglas. 

Detective Story was nominated for four Academy Awards (including Best Director and Best Screenplay) but received none, although it was a critical and commercial success and was better received by the critics than the original stage play on its first release.  Today, it is easy to snigger at the coy allusions to abortion and pre-marital sex (which were doubtless the result of some heavyhanded censorship), but the film was a genuine trail-blazer for its time, the forerunner of the realistic police procedural dramas that would come to dominate cinema and television in the following decades.

Film Synopsis

Jim McLeod is a hard-nosed career detective who carries out his duties with a cold, steely professionalism that might almost be mistaken for zeal.  Jim seldom conceals his loathing for the lowlife he often has to deal with, but for Karl Schneider, a discredited doctor, his contempt is written all over his face.  Schneider is presently charged with the murder of a several young women through his illegal activities as a baby broker. Jim doesn't yet know that before he met her his devoted wife Mary she was made pregnant by another man and gave birth at one of Schneider's baby farms, with the result that she has since been infertile.  When this fact is revealed to Jim his whole world suddenly starts to fall apart...