badajoz-1 Review of Town on Trial

Town on Trial (1957)

Good direction spoilt by poor script and miscasting

[4/10 · 26 April 2012]

The film shows the good and the bad of 50s crime genre movies made in the UK. The direction by John Guillermin (who went on to do some good work) is thoughtful and interesting - different angles and camera movement- but the script has too many holes. You cannot move from whodunnit to deep psychological explanation of the mind of the murderer in about three seconds flat! The storyline of the veneer of a fifties town, where all the so called important people are really hiding secrets, being ripped off by the investigation of a murder of a free and easy, amply bosomed, lay is OK, but it needed a lot more depth and exploration than it is given here. The acting is fine apart from the ridiculous miscasting of John Mills as a tenacious tough detective not afraid to ruffle the dignitas of the leading citizens and capable of seducing the female lead!!!! It should have been Stanley Baker who would have brought more brooding menace and fear to those covering up their indiscretions! And the ending is trite, laughable, and terribly rushed, despite its dramatic location - up a church spire!!!!!! The fifties but not as most remember it!