The liberal "society is to blame" nonsense has been disproven many times — even in this movie. Bogart's character grew up in the same environment that Nick did, but became a successful lawyer. The character of Emma was living alone in poverty with a drunken aunt, yet she was a good girl. In addition, the movie was overly dramatic. Derek played the bad boy like a good boy pretending to be a bad boy. The theatrics of the D.A. in the courtroom were ridiculously overdone. In the end, it was just annoying. Emma's suicide didn't feel realistic either.