I saw this film when I was 21, and came away feeling like the title of my review.
Yes, one felt intense sympathy for Danny Kaye's character. But one also admired the ACLU attorney's dogged determination to see to it that a basic civil right of this country wasn't impinged.
It will make you nostalgic for when things were that way, when we all knew, as much as we despised the ACLU for defending people like nazis, that we also knew they would look out for us under similar circumstances.
In 2019, we have hate speech bans everywhere you look, particularly on college campuses. We also have an ACLU which now concentrates strictly on the rights of those to the left of center. Are we better off? You decide.
I would love for this to be required viewing in every high school civics class. Wait, we don't have those any more, do we?