Cadwallader Jones (Dennis O’Keefe) is a recent graduate of Harvard Law and the nephew of an influential man at the state capital. He presents himself to District Attorney Tom Winton (Stanley Ridges) looking for a job. Due to Jones’ prominent uncle, Winton feels that he has no choice but to hire the fledgling attorney. Winton assigns him to Department 7. Jones’ first case ends in a mistrial when he derails the prosecution’s case resulting in a criminal named Monk Westman (Ben Welden) being set free. To get him out of his hair Winton gives Jones a dead case. In the case a corrupt politician named Paul Hyde (Peter Lorre) disappeared a few years ago with a hundred thousand dollars. Neither Hyde nor the money has been seen since. Some think that Hyde is dead.
Terry Parker (Florence Rice) is a reporter for The Daily Chronicle. She’s been running into Jones since he started working at the D A’s office. Taking an interest in his mishaps, she decides to help him in his investigation. Terry gets sent on a story about a showgirl, Betty Paradise (Joan Blair) who won six thousand dollars at the racetrack. At her apartment is a mild mannered bank teller, Herman Winkle (Charles Arnt). A fight ensues when he learns that Betty won at the track but wasn’t going to pay him back for all the money he gave her. Winkle ends up in jail.
Soon it is learned that some of the marked money stolen by Hyde was passed at the track. What Jones and Terry don’t know is that Winkle has been stealing money from a safety deposit box where Hyde put the stolen money, under an alias. Winkle has been giving money to Betty and she has been spending it at the track. When Betty refused to share her winnings with Winkle he started a fight. Hyde learns what Winkle was doing. He bails him out of jail and kills him. When Jones and Terry find out that Winkle was murdered they see Betty to find out what she knows. Before she can tell them where the marked bills came from she too is murdered.
Jones and Terry believe that Hyde is connected with Arthur Barret (Minor Watson). Barret is a crook who is running against Winton for the office of District Attorney. Jones and Terry end up in the middle of a cross and double cross between Barret and Hyde.
“Mr. District Attorney” was released in 1941 and was directed by William Morgan. It is a comedy crime film produced by Republic Pictures. It is loosely based on a radio program that ran from 1939 to 1951. The program was created by Phillips H. Lord. A sort of remake was done in 1947 which also starred O’Keefe. This one was by Columbia Pictures. In the remake his character was named Steve Bennett and the film had more of a noir feel to it. Two more films were made using the P. Cadwallader and Terry Parker characters. They were “Mr. District Attorney in the Carter Case” 1941 and “Secrets of the Underground” 1942, but with different actors. Both of these were produced by Republic Pictures. There were also two television programs called “Mr. District Attorney”. The first went from 1951-1952 and was a live bi-weekly series. The second ran from 1954-1955.
This was a fun little “B” movie. The plot was a little involved but easy to follow. It was fast paced and quite charming. It was also a bit of a surprise to see Peter Lorre in this even though he had a tiny part.