Je plaide non coupable

A mix of courtroom drama and crime thriller, GUILTY? is an interesting little film that works despite the lack of familiar cast members. It's actually a French film masquerading as a British one; although it's listed as a British co-production and has a handful of British actors in support (most notably Donald Wolfit playing the judge) this is most definitely a French-feeling movie.

The story is about a young woman who stands accused of murder by stabbing at a plush hotel. A group of somewhat shady employees and inhabitants are ranged against her, but she protests her innocence despite having a volatile history with the murder victim. Her new solicitor decides to see if any new evidence can be brought to life so joins forces with a Frenchman to investigate.

What follows is something of a conspiracy of silence broken up by a handful of rather exciting action sequences. The budget is clearly low and yet this looks like a medium to high money production with lots of different locations in both London and France and a good range of cast members. The storyline and its eventual outcome are quite easy to guess and yet the characters keep you involved and the cast members are pretty decent too. Edmond Greville was a French director well known for making BEAT GIRL and THE HANDS OF ORLAC and GUILTY? is certainly a feather in his cap.

This is a film worth watching even with a far from perfect sound quality. Cast were competent.

A strange french film that I saw dubbed, from an US source. It begins like a court drama, where a young woman is accused of a murder and claims her innocence. A journalist tries to prove her not guiltiness. And the films curiously becomes from time to time an actionner, with some gunfights sequences. Not a bad feature, but that I will forget in a couple of weeks, or maybe days. I don't know any of the actors, male or female. It may be a sleeper at some moments, so stay tuned if you want to follow the story in an accurate way. The director was a man who made films in different countries: UK, USA and France. His best known feature was LES MAINS D'ORLAC.

This was one of the post war recrimination films that proliferated in the 1950s.A man is found dead in a hotel.The accused woman had the opportunity and the motive to kill him.However as everyone knows that tends to be a sign of innocence.She is arraigned at the Old Bailey in front of that veteran scene stealer Donald Wolfit who plays a garrulous judge,who is going to make the best of his part.Her solicitor,instead of sitting behind counsel at the trial,goes off to France to try and solve the mystery.The problem about this film is that it is continually drifting into flashbacks so it is often difficult to work out a clear continuity of plot.

Part murder mystery, part thriller, part courtroom drama- this odd little film has a well-intentioned foot in each of these camps without nailing any particular genre. The unimaginative title doesn't help. That said, it's an enjoyable curiosity shown from time to time on TPTV, and John Justin scrubs up very nicely as our clean-cut English hero among a collection of French and Brit character actors; one of our favourite B-film cockneys of the time, Sydney Tafler, plays an Italian-sounding character who's witness statement is critical to the narrative- delivered in a peculiarly unconvincing French accent. As always, interesting to see who else crops up- the great Donald Wolfit as the judge, and Russell Napier (who is nearly always playing a police inspector), playing - er - a police inspector.