A son avenges his father's murder, then becomes the monster he swore to destroy.
In the mob-controlled town of Phenix City, Alabama in the 1950s, a crusading lawyer is assassinated after he is elected attorney general on a platform of 'Man Against Crime'. His son reluctantly takes his place, vowing to clean up Phenix City and find his father's killers. Later he uses the race issue to be elected governor so that he can continue his fight against the mob. But his stand as a segregationist leads to tragic results.
Direction
Clem finds poetry in archival decay
Editing
Jagged cuts mirror fractured legacy
Writing
No narrator—just voices from the grave
Director
Robert Clem
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Patterson outlived his documentary by years—he died in 2021 at age 99, one of Alabama's last segregationist governors.
The 1955 film 'The Phenix City Story' was shot on location while the real Patterson was still cleaning up his father's mess—Hollywood couldn't wait for history to finish.
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