When Life Imitates Film Noir

Wall Street Journal

18-04-2025

When you watch as much film noir as I do—i.e., too much—you make connections between fictional stories and real life. This shady character reminds you of that politician. That witty comeback reminds you of something this celebrity recently said.
Usually the similarities are insignificant. But occasionally there's more to it. Recently, while watching the 1949 whodunit 'Cover Up,' I had one of those noir epiphanies.
Anyone following the first 2024 trial of Karen Read, or the retrial that is scheduled to begin next week, knows how her case has split the city of Canton, Mass., into two bitterly hostile camps. Ms. Read, who has pleaded not guilty, is charged with second-degree murder (and lesser felonies) in the mysterious January 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe. Prosecutors allege that she hit O'Keefe with her car and left him to die outside in a blizzard. In the 2024 trial, her defense team claimed she's the victim of a wide-reaching conspiracy perpetrated by local law-enforcement officers and friends. The first trial ended in a hung jury on July 1, 2024.
'Karen Read was framed' were the first explosive words out of lead defense attorney David Yannetti's mouth during the 2024 trial. Alan Jackson, Ms. Read's other high-profile lawyer, echoed him: 'Ladies and gentlemen, there was a coverup in this case, plain and simple.' The defense contended that Ms. Read is taking the fall for O'Keefe's death, which resulted not from a vehicular accident but from a drunken physical altercation inside the Canton home of a fellow cop. They cited lewd texts sent by the original lead investigator about Ms. Read, inexplicable butt-dials, conveniently destroyed cellphones, inverted police videos and a host of other suspicious goings-on. The bizarre ordeal has cast a giant stain on the Boston Police Department.
Similarities to the Read trial abound in 'Cover Up.' Lead actor Dennis O'Keefe—who has the same surname as the Read trial murder victim—plays an insurance investigator inquiring into the suicide of one of his policyholders in a fictional town called Cleberg.
But the facts don't add up: There are no powder burns on the victim, and the suicide gun is missing. One local after another stonewalls O'Keefe: the suspiciously laconic sheriff, the tight-lipped village banker, his equally taciturn daughter, the banker's evidence-destroying housekeeper, the local jeweler—even the niece who stands to gain an additional $20,000 if her uncle's death is ruled a murder. Add a gun that goes missing and then magically reappears and you begin to feel this story could as easily be set in Canton as in Cleberg.
Fictional thrillers such as 'The Invasion of the Body Snatchers,' 'Soylent Green' and 'The Stepford Wives' have told tales in which a city in lockstep executes a grand malevolent plot. Perhaps we accept them because we've witnessed so many real-life conspiracies, like those depicted in 'All the President's Men' and 'Erin Brockovich.' Is the Read case the latest example?
The ending of 'Cover Up' doesn't disappoint. Probably not so with the Read trial. Half of those hearing the verdict are almost certain to be outraged.
Mr. Opelka is a musical-theater composer-lyricist.