Feet of Clay

A Probation Officer, whom operates a hotel for troubled youth, is murdered. The public are disgusted that this woman who devoted her life to helping others has been stabbed to death. Scotland Yard has picked up a suspect (Brian Smith) who was staying at the hotel and he confesses to the crime.

A defence attorney (Vincent Ball) is assigned to defend Smith but the boy refuses to help Ball. This seems curious to Ball as Smith is obviously hiding something. A visit to the hotel run by the murdered woman only raises more question. The hotel is now being run by the dead woman's two assistants (Hilda Fenemore and Robert Cawdron) and they seem to be hiding something as well.

Ball's break comes when he realizes a young woman (Angela Douglas) staying at the hotel is Smith's girlfriend. Ball presses Smith with questions and the lad finally admits the truth. He didn't murder the probation officer, but he fears his girlfriend committed the crime. Ball disagrees and thinks Fenemore and Cawdron are the killers. An even bigger shock comes when Smith reveals the murdered probation officer wasn't the sweet woman everyone thinks she was. In fact, she and her two assistants sell narcotics and use the kids to drop off the goods and collect the money.

Ball tries to get Douglas out of the hotel before Fenemore and Cawdron suspect the truth. But it's too late, Scotland Yard calls the hotel but Fenemore and Cawdron claim that Douglas has run away. Now it's a race against time as Ball rushes to the hotel before the evil pair can kill Douglas.

This is a typical low budget Danziger thriller.The story is a copy of many earlier thrillers.Man cofesses to a murder,end of story.Well no its just the beginning.Vincent Ball was not charismatic enough to carry a leading role as he shows here

Vincent Ball has just been called to the bar, and he's assigned a loser of a case: Brian Smith has confessed to killing his probation officer, and she was a well loved woman. Still, as his senior partner tells him, while winning cases is important, so is putting up a good fight on obvious losers. So he buckles down and tries to get some character witnesses. But some things don't add up.

This being a Danziger production, I had never heard of the writer or director, and the cast consisted of people who sort of looked familiar, but the only one I could put a face to was Wendy Williams... well, I wasn't expecting much. And the script did have a couple of holes in it, but the pacing was good and the cast, although not top-notch, was quite good in their line readings. The result is a B movie that does was one is supposed do: fill up an high with a little story decently told.