"Shot in ten days, edited in six!" Paramount's publicity manager proudly told me at the trade screening. It certainly didn't look that way to me. I'd say it was shot in four days, edited in three. Aside from Dan Duryea's professional playing, this dreary British "B" has absolutely nothing to recommend it. Every device known to Poverty Row movie makers has been used to pad out the running time to quota length. The players take forever to walk across a room and reaction shots from bystanders are cut in to make the walk even longer.
All Miss Owens's scenes were obviously filmed in a rush. She is not even present in most of the episodes in which is supposed to interact with the other players, e.g. all the court-room scenes. Crude film editing tries to disguise this fact, but to no avail.
In addition to the movie's dull and totally unengaging direction, the photography is often fuzzy and even occasionally out of focus. In fact production values are so minimal and the budget so tight, it didn't even stretch to paying a couple of extras to sit in the back of an obviously empty taxi.
All Miss Owens's scenes were obviously filmed in a rush. She is not even present in most of the episodes in which is supposed to interact with the other players, e.g. all the court-room scenes. Crude film editing tries to disguise this fact, but to no avail.
In addition to the movie's dull and totally unengaging direction, the photography is often fuzzy and even occasionally out of focus. In fact production values are so minimal and the budget so tight, it didn't even stretch to paying a couple of extras to sit in the back of an obviously empty taxi.