Eine Stadt steht vor Gericht

John Mills stars in "Town on Trial" from 1957, also starring Charles Coburn and Barbara Bates.

A sexy, flirtatious blond is the talk of an exclusive tennis club, with all the men drooling. However, she's found dead, and it's learned that she was two months pregnant.

The main suspect is Mark Roper (Derek Farr), a married man with whom she was having an affair and is apparently the child's father. Another is a young man (Alec McCowen) labeled schizophrenic by his doctor (Charles Coburn). The doctor himself later comes under scrutiny as well.

Meanwhile, his attractive niece (Bates) is interested in Superintendent Mike Halloran (Mills), the detective assigned to the case. Later, there is another murder of a woman, another flirtatious young woman.

The townspeople are no help, as they all seem to be keeping secrets.

Good movie, with lots of familiar faces: Fay Compton, Geoffrey Keen, Raymond Huntley, and Elizabeth Seal. Mills does a terrific job as a tough detective who doesn't mind ruffling feathers.

The ending is fantastic.

This film has a great cast, three plausible suspects and is directed very stylishly. John Mills is aces as always. The rest of the cast is top notch.

It was an entertaining little sleeper.

As pointed out by another reviewer, TOWN ON TRIAL opens with a murder confession. Which is pivotal to the film's eliptical structure.

This film is one of Director John Guilhermin's finest achievements, perhaps topped only by RAPTURE (1965), well before epic duds like TOWERING INFERNO and KING KONG in the 1970s.

At this stage in his career, Guilhermin showed an eye for detail, and TOWN opens with a very interesting and fluid camera movement as a police car parks outside a police station and an unidentified and facially unrevealed criminal gets out in cuffs. That seemingly minor detail pings off a series of other deft touches throughout, filmed with considerable verve and imagination by the highly competent if not terribly well known Basil Emott.

I rate John Mills one of the most reliable actors I have had the pleasure to watch. I have never seen a poor performance from him, and I have seen many well above average, including RYAN'S DAUGHTER, OH! WHAT A LOVELY WAR, HOBSON'S CHOICE, ABOVE US THE WAVES, THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, among others. Well, he is simply peerless in TOWN ON TRIAL. The way he conveys on the job knowledge, raises and lowers his voice, his eyes - which can be menacing or loving, depending on who he addresses (lovely Bates certainly gets the sensitive treatment). His acting in this film deserves careful study, such is the versatility.

Beautiful Bates performs credibly as a nurse, conveying heartfelt interest in others... and love. I guess she portrays the type of woman any man would fall head over heels for.

Charles Coburn, Alec McCowen, and Geoffrey Keen deliver first class support for the leads, and vivacious Elizabeth Seal almost steals the show with a small pouting and dancing part.

Very strong script. A real treat of a noir/whodunnit film.

With its small town setting, use of a local 'roadhouse' and the casting of Charles Coburn and Barbara Bates it's fairly obvious the British-made crime melodrama "Town on Trial" had its eye on the American market, (even the title sounds more American than British). John Mills is the policeman investigating the murder of local good-time girl Molly, (Magda Miller), and the movie is told in flashback. All we know is that the killer is one of a group of men seen watching Molly bounce around on the tennis court in the opening sequence and director John Guillermin does a fine job of keeping us guessing as to which one it might be. All the performances, particularly Mills and Coburn, are excellent and as murder mysteries go this one is surprisingly intelligent and consistently enjoyable. One of Guillermin's better efforts.

Having been stuck in the house on a cold winter afternoon I switched on Channel 4 to view their afternoon film Town on Trial and am I glad I did This is a hidden gem of a movie. It will keep you guessing right up to the end who the murderer is. Try and spot Dandy Nichols in a bit part(this is what I love about these old fifties films,spotting actors who go on to greater things) If you can get a copy to rent you will not be disappointed. I give it nine out of ten