More mystery than noir, John Guillermin’s
Town on Trial is an exceptional example of the former and a strong candidate for the latter. With the same claustrophobic small town atmosphere as Clouzot’s
Le Corbeau (1943), the film follows superintendent Mike Halloran (John Mills in a fantastically understated performance) as he investigates residents of Oakley Park for the murder of bombshell tennis player Molly Stevens (Magda Miller, a Diana Dors lookalike). Suspicion rumbles beneath most of Halloran’s interviews, but soon his list of targets is narrowed to a handful of men, which includes the sporting club’s secretary Mark Roper (Derek Farr) and the town doctor John Fenner (Charles Coburn). When all the suspects converge on a dance at the club, a second murder occurs under identical circumstances, culminating in a chase up the church steeple in the center of town. Extremely entertaining and criminally underrated,
Town on Trial is a master class in sleuthing and suspense with plenty of cinematographic innovation: note the sequence of whip pans dropping in on suspects discussing guilt with their loved ones over the peal of the church bells outside.
