Thu 6 Apr 2023
An Archived Movie Review: TRIAL WITHOUT JURY (1950).
Posted by Steve under Mystery movies , Reviews[7] Comments
TRIAL WITHOUT JURY. Republic Pictures, 1950. Robert Rockwell, Barbra Fuller, Kent Taylor, Audrey Long, Barbara Billingsley, Dabbs Greer, Jack Larson. Directed by Philip Ford.
A playwright [Kent Taylor] finds himself in a jam after the producer he has just had an argument with is found murdered. Worse, his girl friend’s brother is the police lieutenant assigned to the case, and he is convinced the writer did it. Solution: turn amateur detective.
Rockwell, more famous in some circles for his career on TV, does not make very convincing [homicide] detective. The real star is Kent Taylor as the prime suspect, but any story in which you find a killer by making yourself bait does not have very much going for it.
– Reprinted from Movie.File.2, June 1980.
April 6th, 2023 at 12:18 pm
I have just discovered a link to the movie online:
https://archive.org/details/trial-without-jury-1950
April 6th, 2023 at 3:14 pm
Nostalgia (?) Time!
Since after all these years I still can’t link *darndarndarndarndarn*, I must ask all of you to try and find a sort-of review I put here many long years ago …
The film in question is Alias The Champ, a Republic epic from 1949, which came up during a spate of comments having to do with professional wrestling (remember that flap?).
If you look up Alias The Champ, and compare its cast and credits with Trial Without Jury … well, res ipsa loquitur, as the lawyers say …
I’m wondering what other treasures await in the Republic vaults (caves?).
April 6th, 2023 at 3:28 pm
Mike,
Here it is: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=17781
April 6th, 2023 at 3:32 pm
And here’s the cast:
ALIAS THE CHAMP. Republic Pictures, 1949. Robert Rockwell, Barbra Fuller, Audrey Long, Jim Nolan, John Harmon, Sammy Menacker, Joseph Crehan, John Hamilton, Gorgeous George (George Wagner), Bomber Kulkovich (Henry Kulky). Director: George Blair.
(Thanks, Tony!)
April 7th, 2023 at 8:50 pm
Rockwell is probably best remembered as Mr. Boynton on OUR MISS BROOKS and Jor-el on THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN’s first episode.
Taylor is one of those reliable faces who had a pretty long run as a minor leading man in B films and on television (BOSTON BLACKIE, ROUGH RIDERS).
April 8th, 2023 at 2:46 pm
What’s difficult to understand is why Rockwell is given top billing and Taylor only third. It could have (and should have) easily been the other way around based on their respective roles and importance to the story.
April 15th, 2023 at 4:52 pm
Now, some 40 years later, I have just watched this movie again on YouTube. My any objective standard it is not very good, but neither is it out and out terrible. (It’s closer to that end of the scale though, than the “very good” end.)