***SPOILERS*** Hard hitting movie about the mob or "Syndicates" attempted takeover of the biggest union in Chicago the Workers National Brotherhood, or WNB for short. This devious plan is cooked up by disbarred lawyer and former Al Capone gang member Alan Dixon, Garvin Gordon,who plans to turn the WNB into a front for the Syndicates illegal activities; loansharking gambling and prostitution.
The man running for president of the WNB the beloved and respected, by all the union members, Arthur "Artie" Blaine, Dick Foran, is about to get a boost from his friend the accountant of the union Mickey Partos, John Morley, who's to turn over the crooked and mobbed up president Ken Harrison, Douglas Kennedy, cooked books to Chicago's districts attorney Jim Fremont, Brian Keith. It just happens that Mickey is kidnapped and murdered by Harrisons hood's who plant evidence, the murder weapon, at the scene of the crime implicating the innocent Artie Blaine.
Harrison and his boss the behind the scenes Alan Dixon are now ready to pull off a "Hat Trick" in their planned takeover of the WNB union. Get rid of of Mickey Partos, which they did, frame Artie Blaine for his murder and then, with Artie's reputation as an incorruptible union leader go straight down the toilet, pave the way for the mob-controlled Harrison to get re-elected unanimously, with no one running against him, by the hapless and disgruntled union members. There's was just one thing that both Dixon & Harrison didn't plan on a drunken rummy, and former WNB union member, Candymouth Duggan, Elisha Cook Jr, who staggered on the scene and found the gun that killed Mickey Partos; the gun that his best friend Artie was supposed to have killed him with!
Despite Harrison screwing up it didn't take long for him and his boys to get Candymouth to change his story telling the D.A, Jim Fremont, that he found the gun in Partos' car ,which was at the bottom of Lake Michigan at the time Candymouth came on the scene, tying Artie to Partos' murder. Harrison also had a key witness, Artie's next door neighbor, Sylvia Clarkson, Beverly Tyler, change her testimony which at first cleared Artie of the crime. With all the evidence pointing at him Artie is convinced of first degree murder and slated to have a date with the state of Illinois' electric chair. Feeling that he's now on a roll D.A Fremont is a shoe-in to be elected the next governor by having Artie Blaine sent to the death house. Still Artie's girlfriend Laura Burton, Beverly Garland, refuses to give up on Artie's innocence and it's her bulldog like determination to get the truth out that in the end saves Artie's life and puts Harrison & Co. either in the city morgue or behind bars in the state penitentiary.
Documentary-style crime flick has all the ingredients of a great film noir classic but gets a bit carried away with the violence which makes it just another crime shoot-him-up movie. It's hard to believe that the Chicago D.A Jim Fremont would go out on his own risking both his and his wife's Helen, Phillis Coates, lives in tackling the "Chcago Syndicate" almost single handed. This without using the entire Chicago Police Force as well as, with Harrison & Dixon also involved in tax fraud, the FBI which were easily at his disposal!
Fremont does in the end get the job done and has Artie Blaine freed and restored back to being the president of the WNB Union but he could have done it a lot easier if he only let the Chicago Police and US Justice Departmet do the job themselves. Not by trying to be a hero and go solo and very possibly end up together with the late Mickey Partos sleeping with the fishes. But then the movie wouldn't have been as exciting as it turned out to be.
P/S Besides Phillis Coates who played Lois Lane in the Adventures of Superman TV series there's also in the movie "Chicago Confidential" John Hamilton playing Artie's defense attorney Emory Morgan. Hamilton was also a member of the Superman TV cast as the city of Metropolis' newspaper The Daily Planet's editor Perry "Great Caesars' Ghost" White.
