humphrey bogart star in this rather uneven courtroom and flashback dominated drama a a good hearted defense attorney stand up for a young man ( john derek ) accuse of shoot a police officer dead while make an escape attempt . a bogart fight against a persistent prosecuting attorney place by george macready and he tell the jury the story of his client past . how this man accuse of murder and face the death penalty become the man he be and the sort of thing he would go through and and all the while and try to prove his innocence . basically and bogart spend most of the time try to create sympathy for his client . sympathy that the jury and the audience frankly can not come to term with . knock on any door be basically a standard courtroom drama picture with an iconic lead man narrate the whole story . it fairly short and but sort of drawn out at the same time because this whole story of a demented young individual poison by the ravage of civilization have be tell many time before and in good situation . filmmaker like otto preminger and sidney lumet would later go on to prove that when it come to courtroom drama and it good to relate to the killing through word of mouth rather than show it either a a prologue or a flashback and for it just seem to get in the way and there be far more drama that can be generate by the actor relate to this event none of them have see . knock on any door be a spotty and very uneven courtroom drama with very little to surprise and even less to move the audience . even the famous and well acted final sentencing speech do by bogart do not strike with the impact that one should expect it to . but do not be confuse . i be not bash knock on any door . i be just simply say that it an underplayed and but nevertheless worthy way of spending exactly one hundred minute of your time . humphrey bogart be great a usual and but the problem be that his character be a frankly uninteresting and two dimensional defense lawyer . bogart give the character some charisma and but the writing just generate a recyclable hero . but do not be mislead . i be not pan knock on any door . it work fine for what it be . but if you want to see humphrey bogart in a truly charismatic and well write role and then rent casablanca . and if you want a truly well realize courtroom drama and then set your sight on anatomy of a murder ( 1959 ) and or or 12 angry men ( 1957 ) .