Unusual, hard-hitting and memorable small-town drama. It's Memorial Day in the South and a young woman is murdered. Her college professor who was in the building at the time is arrested, along with a black caretaker. This sets in motion a local politician, eager to make political ground with a big courtroom conviction, and a very slimy newspaperman who's in league with him. The case goes national and suddenly it's also the North vs the South and the case of prejudice against the suspects. The lynch mob ending is horrifying in its understatement, but most innovatively, we don't even find out who the murderer was.
Variable performances from Claude Rains (unbelievable Southern accent), Gloria Dickson and Edward Norris, Otto Kruger, Allyn Joslyn memorable as yellow press, Lana Turner is the victim, Elisha Cook Jr. and Clinton Rosemond as the janitor. Photographed by Arthur Edeson, music by Adolph Deautsch. Written by Ward Greene (based on his novel), Robert Rossen and Aben Kandel for Warner Bros.
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| A powerful symbol of mob law by lynching |
In reality back then, they probably would have lynched the black man, whatever anyone said.
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