The tone for one thing seems to start with comedy. The murder that opens the show is a strangling--very poorly staged--and several scenes in a row after that have people making references to "stiking your neck out" and about any other strangling/choking pun you can imagine. Almost none of which seem natural or are funny.
But then it gets better, it seems to proceed fairly seriously, then it gets a little hard to believe as during the trial a juror is repeatedly allowed to question various witnesses--perhaps the novel, this is based on, was set many years earlier when this was allowed--but it strains belief in a contemporary setting. Eventually there is another poorly staged fights scene and then a pretty good ending.
Dean Jagger was always a unique type as an actor and always good in his own way and that's true here too. But he's limited by the material--his wife is written and acted as a total shrew and that's a real problem--though her part, thankfully, isn't that large.
Writer/adapter James Bridges does uneven work--and I can't say which good or bad ideas are his and which are from the source material--though I think the country-fried aspects come from him. There are a few scattered powerful statements about guilt and crime which seem almost thrown away.
So I don't know, it has a few moody shots from underrated DP William Magueles, but it's not very well directed and seems like a missed opportunity as a whole, still those good ideas make it almost a much watch, if not a must enjoy.