The Phenix City Story

A 1955 American crime film noir directed by Phil Karlson for Allied Artists, dramatizing the 1954 assassination of attorney and politician Albert Patterson in Phenix City, Alabama, and the subsequent declaration of martial law. The film portrays a corrupt Southern town where organized crime runs rampant, and a young lawyer's efforts to challenge it lead to a deadly confrontation with the city's powerful forces. When local attorney Albert "Pat" Patterson is nominated for Attorney General on a platform of cleaning up Phenix City, his life is brutally cut short, prompting his son John to take up the fight against corruption.