Simply A Masterpiece

Fresh and Exciting

Admirable film.

A Masterpiece!

This great film will come as a great shock to anyone who thinks of 1950s America in Leave It To Beaver terms, and that's a very good thing. An exaggerated but not misleading portrait of a hugely racist and sexist nation at its worst, with a feel-good conclusion that rings false in light of what we've just seen and generally know to be true about the US at the time. The performances are good for the most part, but the things these people say and do may give you the creeps. The scene in front of the city hall when the local white men are about to use nitro to blow up the front door is absolutely frightening. The 50s will never seem the same again, and that's a very good thing. This movie should be part of history courses.

Trial is a very powerful film with a believable story line, revolving around a young Mexican/American boy accused in the death of a teenage girl with a heart condition, the death being caused by an alleged sexual assault. It first appears to be a straightforward courtroom drama, but before long, the plot begins to unfold revealing the film's ulterior message: That nothing is as it appears! The film's pronounced right-wing position does not seem at all offensive, as it clearly shows to what extent the political left will go to achieve it's agenda. As it is portrayed here, one is sickened as an ultra-left lawyer at first appears to be genuinely concerned with his client's case. At this point in my review, to go further in this direction would be a "Spoiler". If you get the opportunity to see this film, don't miss it! I've only seen it twice, both times on Turner Classic Movies; I do not know if it is available on either VHS or DVD.

This film fascinates precisely BECAUSE of its confused treatment of the theme of bigotry. It does not only refer, under a thin disguise of name, to Senator McCarthy - but also to the Ku Klux Klan. To me, its chief value is that it illustrates rather startlingly the ethical strangeness of a mid-fifties America apparently seeking a definition of justice while still beset with considerable self-doubt concerning its own institutions.Few films of the period make so explicit the names of the antagonists; that is what sets it apart.On the level of pure melodrama, it is entertaining, fast-paced and convincingly acted. The opening scene suggests an erotically-charged no man's land, namely the beach community of San Juno, anno 1947. This is the scene that I think will remain in my memory, because it precedes all the rhetoric, legalistic and otherwise, which never quite connects with the reality of spontaneous behaviour - simply, groping in the dark.

A 50's movie which challenges extremism at many levels. Bigotry, police corruption, mob mentality and communist subversion all are taken to task in this movie. A young Hispanic boy is accused of murdering a young white girl. Glen Ford, a law academic with no practical experience takes the case to learn what it is like to handle a real case rather than one from a text book. He is an incredible teacher, but will he be as good in the real world.Throughout the story see then towns people wanting to hang the boy, the subversion of a communist sympathizer who uses the young man and his mother to further his cause, corrupt police, real-estate hungry bigots and more.Truth win out in the end. However, Fords character is challenged by the trial judge, brilliantly played by Juana Hernandez, and his own bigotry (Sydney Portier does the same to Ford in "The Blackboard Jungle".Over all a good movie set in the cold war era. It is a film where consensus is fought for and truth prevails.