jamesraeburn2003 A North London cab driver, Tom Manning (Richard Attenborough), agrees to help a little girl find her doll on a bombsite, but it turns out she is playing an April Fools on him and she runs away. He chases after her with the intention of "giving her a talking to" but she outruns him and he goes off to work thinking nothing more of it. However, the following day he is arrested as the child has been found murdered on the bombsite and there are witnesses who saw him with her and chasing angrily after her. In addition, the police have found his handkerchief that he gave to the child beside the body. Tom's loyal and devoted wife, Jill (Cathy O' Donnell), wins the sympathy and services of Junior Counsel Peter Tanner (Derek Farr) who agrees to defend her husband when the attorney scheduled to do it falls ill. He proves to be a first rate lawyer, but the prosecution's case seems rock solid and he will need a real lucky break to save him from the gallows...Minor courtroom thriller with a plot that may well have been cutting edge at the time, but now seems unremarkable since it has been done several times and a lot better since. Nevertheless, director Lance Comfort keeps it well afloat with a good emphasis on character and, at times, the anxiety, anguish and tension seem really genuine and the performances of Attenborough and O' Donnell are superb as the newly married couple whose lives are put through sheer hell as they fight to clear his name. There is a really powerful scene where Attenborough sees the prison doctor who points to a flying accident he once had and implies that he may have had a blackout and committed the crime but had no recollection of doing so. "They try to make excuses for you; try to find reasonings for things you never thought of at the time and you begin to wonder if you really did do it", he tells O' Donnell as she visits him in jail. His thoughts and feelings seem realistic to us, the viewers, and we can sympathise with his plight since it seems that the police in the film do not really care if Manning is innocent or not and are solely interested in getting a conviction and that's it even if it means the real killer may remain at large and the wrong man goes to the gallows for it. The film does, however, get static in the courtroom scenes and they carry very little in the way of suspense. In addition, I was disappointed in the battle between the prosecution Counsel, Ian Hunter, and the defence attorney, Derek Farr, since in the story they are playing father and son and are opposing each other at the bar and that was not as well developed nor as effective as I thought it should be.

writers_reign This is something of a mish-mosh all round, not least with a title that leads a potential audience to believe it is about a condemned man waiting to take the eight o'clock walk to the gallows and whilst it is true that the protagonist is accused of and stands trial for murder he is in fact acquitted. Director Lance Comfort made a handful of interesting films like Hatter's Castle, Bedelia and such but laid a colossal egg when entrusted with Portrait of Clare and was somewhat persona non grata ever afterward, mostly making do with TV fodder and the odd title like this one. For some reason Dickie Attenborough had a penchant for importing US actresses to appear opposite him; in The Angry Silence it was Pier Angeli and here it is Cathy O'Donnell. In fact the cast is one of the most interesting aspects of this with appearances by Kynaston Reeves, Victor Maddern etc plus in-vogue Derek Farr improbably unmasking the real killer a la Perry Mason. Worth a look as a curio.

James Oliver Watching this film from the 1954, was an unexpected enjoyable movie,Richard Attenborough is very good in this film, while not a film to mark out on his long film career, it certain should not be forgotten. Cathy O'Donnell has an accent which is not Canadian.The Film is like a moment of the 1950's caught on film. The film deals with whole criminal investigation of the UK criminal justice system from the discovery of victim to investigation, collecting witness statements, including forensic investigation, jury selection, arrangement, and the actual trial, the film has a good story line than most crime dramas on TV's.

Jem Odewahn What I shame that I appear to be one of the few people out there (well, at least on IMDb) that have seen this very credible little film. I viewed it on a VHS double bill with another Richard Attenborough film, the better known "Brighton Rock", and found it well worth the time. Attenborough find himself accused and on trial for the murder of a little girl. He is innocent, but all circumstantial evidence points against him. Only his sweet, devoted wife Cathy O'Donnell and his stand-in lawyer, Derek Farr, are willing to believe him.I thought that this film captured the trial scenes particularly well, and they feel real. Richard Attenborough, a fine choice for the role, does well in conveying his character's fear and confusion at a situation he never expected to happen. The murder of children was not a subject touched very often in American films in those days, and this must be one of the first post-"M" (Fritz Lang's brilliant, groundbreaking German film with Peter Lorre as the whistling pedophile)films to deal with the subject. The film is neatly directed and edited, and it really is worth checking out. Hopefully this won't be the only comment that this film ever receives!