Review of Up for Murder

I found that this crime drama (which had a ton of potential) sadly to be a difficult viewing, nearly impossible to get through, and not a great follow-up for Lew Ayres from the original "All Quiet on the Western Front". Poor editing, creaky sound recording and a story that takes quite a while to get going, with Ayres on death row for the crime of a murder which he did not commit. The only one who knows the truth is Genevieve Tobin (an early sound glamour girl), having seen there when the victim, Purnell Pratt, fell. I didn't find the case against Ayres believable, but performances by Tobin, Dorothy Peterson (playing his concerned mother) and Frank McHugh added some juice to what the normally great Ayres failed to provide. The only scene for me that made a real impact was when Ayres was on death row and quick shots of the camera of other death row inmates screaming in his defense began to occur. This needed a ton more detail than it provided, such as scenes of Ayres at the newspaper where he had just gotten a job.