The Great O'Malley: When Being Right Goes Wrong

Is it worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a soft spot for those black-and-white morality plays from the thirties. If you prefer your cops to have a little more nuance—or at least a little less shouting—you might want to skip this one. It’s perfect for a rainy afternoon when you’re bored, but it’s definitely not going to change your life.

Pat O'Malley is the kind of guy who would write you a ticket for jaywalking while your house is burning down. He’s painfully by the book. It’s actually pretty impressive how annoying he makes the character, just by being so aggressively helpful in the worst way possible.

Then he ruins a guy's life over some trivial nonsense, and suddenly he's the neighborhood sad sack. The movie tries to pivot into a guilt-trip drama, which is a bit of a tonal whiplash.

The Bogart factor

Bogart shows up, and you can tell he’s already itching for those grittier noir roles that would come later. He feels a bit out of place here, like he’s wearing a costume he doesn’t quite believe in. It’s funny to see him playing second fiddle when you know what he becomes.

• The scene where O'Malley keeps checking his watch while someone is trying to talk to him? Classic.
• I swear the background extras in the courthouse scene are just staring at the camera for a solid ten seconds.
• The dialogue is stiff, like the actors are trying to read it off a teleprompter that doesn't exist yet.

There’s a moment near the middle where the film tries to be heartwarming, and it just lands with a thud. It feels like the director was trying to force a Hallmark moment into a gritty crime story. It doesn't work.

It’s not as interesting as The Uninvited Guest, though it shares that same sense of wanting to be something more than a studio filler. It’s just... fine. Sometimes 'fine' is all you get, right?

Maybe it’s just me, but the kid in the movie has a way of looking at the camera that’s genuinely unsettling. Like she knows something we don't. Or maybe she just wanted to go home and eat lunch.

The ending is exactly what you expect. No surprises, no big twists, just a slow walk toward redemption that felt like it took three hours. If you need me, I'll be watching something a bit less 'by the book.' 🍿