Je plaide non coupable

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.

The British TV channel Talking Pictures recently screened this film. It wasn't perfect quality, and twice I had stop my recording, reverse and freeze to read a scribbled note.

The plot was divided between a hotel where a murder took place, a courtroom at London's Old Bailey and France (with echoes of the German occupation). It was not at all bad, though a couple of times I did wonder how the French reporter had come up with information to progress the investigation he was making with his friend Nat Rumbold.

As always with court dramas, one might wonder at some of the legal procedures, not least the last-minute intervention. And there were one or two scenes that could have been improved, such as that with the out-of-control car, when interior reaction shots of Nat realising he had a problem could have been effectively added.

But overall the film was good enough to have merited a better-known cast. Donald Wolfit (later to be knighted) as the judge was the biggest - indeed the only big - name, and there was a sprinkling of familiar British character actors.

Everyone acquitted themselves well enough.

It would appear that the film was released in both English and French, and a poster on IDMB gives prominence to the French actors.

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.

I saw this film this morning, 5th September 2018, on Talking Pictures which I often watch these days when there is garbage on most other tv channels. It was a long film and I found myself looking at the clock several times to check when it ended.One example of the producers casting British actors so us anglo saxons can understand the script, was " the vital French witness" played by Sidney Tafler who gave testimony just before the jury gave its verdict.Phony French accents were the order of the day when even ignorant French peasants spoke intelligible English.More intelligent producers later would provide English subtitles whenever a non English part was spoken on film, thus providing more verisimilitude, a classic case being Darryl F Zanuck's remarkable "The Longest Day"(1962) which had sequences in French & German.The film seemed long because, as a previous reviewer has said there were too many flashbacks in the Criminal Court sequences. when he played a RAF fighter pilot and I agree with the previous reviewer who wrote continual flashbacks broke the continuity of the scenes.The only previous film in which I had seen the leading man was in Leslie Howard's "The Gentle Sex" (1945) when he played a RAF fighter pilot.I even found myself thinking in schoolboy French what I would have said in their authentic language.The plot was rather contrived by the scriptwriter being merely adequate, henc emy rating of 6/10.