Knock on Any Door

Andrew Morton is a lawyer who arose from the slums to achieve a prominent position as a well-respected defense attorney. Nick Romano is his latest client, a young man with a long rap sheet. After Nick gambles away the paycheck he was hoping to use to buy his wife some jewelry, she informs him that she's pregnant. Later he finds her dead from suicide. When he turns again to robbery, he's caught by a cop and pumps all his bullets into him in frustration. Morton's appeal to the court emphasizes the evil, dehumanizing nature of life in the slums.