| Summary |
"A young man is wrongly convicted of murder based on the faulty eyewitness testimony of a single man. Retired attorney Spencer Tracy, now a self-destructive alcoholic, agrees to defend young John O'Hara (James Arness) on a murder charge. Due to his inebriation, carelessness, and unethical court behavior, Tracy loses the case. Though at first he'd had his own doubts about O'Hara, the attorney determines that the boy was in fact innocent, and launches his own investigation. Tracking down the guilty party, Tracy is mortally wounded, but not before securing the evidence that will set O'Hara free. Spencer Tracy agreed to appear in The People Against O'Hara only on the condition that his old friend Pat O'Brien, who hadn't been in an "A" picture for a while, be given a large role." |