Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Copyright 1955 by Loew's Inc. An M-G-M picture. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall: 13 October 1955. U.S. release: 7 October 1955. U.K. release: January 1956. Australian release: 7 February 1956. Sydney opening at the St James. Running times: 110 minutes (Aust), 108 minutes (UK), 105 minutes (USA).NOTES: A four-minute scene with Arthur Kennedy in which some mild criticisms are made of the U.S. legal system was deleted from American prints but retained in the U.K. and Australian versions.Arthur Kennedy was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, losing to Jack Lemmon in Mister Roberts.Number 7 on the Film Daily's best films of the year list, as voted by over five thousand American film critics.COMMENT: Tremendously popular in its day, Trial is yet another movie that has disappeared from public view. True, it's a film with a number of major deficiencies, but it also offers Arthur Kennedy in what is undoubtedly the most charismatic performance of his career. As a rabble-rousing fund-raiser he really comes across with a force and vitality that's absolutely rivetting. In fact, the rally scene is the most vividly realised in the film, brilliantly directed on a level of wondrously-sustained hysteria, abetted by exceptionally skilful special effects.Unfortunately, the other principals don't quite match Kennedy's expertise. Yes, there are some enthralling support portrayals by the likes of John Hodiak and Juano Hernandez, but Glenn Ford and Dorothy McGuire don't enter into their roles with quite the required zest. Their performances could be justly described as little more than routine. Of course they are not helped by the irrelevant, predictable and thoroughly cliched romantic interest that the script so artificially stirs up between them.Alas, the most damning indictment against this legal drama is the very illegality, naivety and incredibility of some of its legal arguments. The "solution" is a real cop-out. And as for Armstrong's so called "devastating" cross-examination which is actually so weak and unconvincing... True, Trial has something to offer in the way of engrossing entertainment, but, in all, misguided emphases both in script writing and direction, rob it of the power and high-voltage interest it should have generated. Robson's approach is always slick, but often superficial.

"Trial" stunned me. Set in the '40s, the story shows us how the descendants of the original slave owners, now the modern Jim Crow segregationists, began hiding behind Communist front groups and adopting social causes-- not out of a sense of remorse but only to give the themselves a veneer of respectability to avoid detection. Sound familiar? Since the end of WW2,these Marxist wannabees have been infiltrating academia, the media, and the entertainment industry in a combined effort to destroy the nation they hate by revisionist history and constant negative propaganda. Is it any wonder why liberals despise Senator Joe McCarthy so much? Dorothy McGuire's speech to Glenn Ford describing how she became a Communist "fellow traveler in college" could have been written by millions of today's campus snowflakes ... that is, IF they ever learned how to write a coherent sentence between riots.

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.

Trial is an intelligently written look at the explosive issues of the 50s: race and communism. Though the film is hindered by its overly virulent anti-communist screenplay, it does try and deal with the intersection of race and justice in what was probably a very liberal manner in 1955. Trial is probably the first American film made with an African-American in an authority role (the always excellent Juano Hernandez as the trial judge). The film does take a wack at McCarthy (here 'disguised' as Congressman Battle) and also is openly critical of racists and nationalists. Even with the redbaiting--some of which is probably accurate--Trial is a very well made and brave film with one of Glenn Ford's best performances at its heart.