Above average B murder mystery where the D.A. discovers that both his son and daughter have connections to the deceased...and other suspects. Veteran character actor Stanley Ridges tries to retain as much dignity as he can as the head of a very troubled family. The son (Rex Williams) has already been in all sorts of trouble, having become involved with gambling, while daughter Janet Shaw has been seeing bandleader Bill Henry who along with Williams was seeing murdered singer Veda Ann Borg on the side. With their mother (Claire Whitney) very fragile, Ridges wants to spare her as much pain as possible, but a district attorney must do his job, scandal or not.
Even in the edited TV version, this film is fraught with mystery and moves at a very fast pace. Of course, there's the typical number of red herrings thrown in and various clues to throw the audience off, but at under an hour, this gives the viewing audience to see inside the hearts and souls of law keepers, whom we see as ruthless and self serving on the surface, but every inch human where it counts. Etta McDaniel (Hattie's sister) gets a stereotypical servant role, overdoing it a bit on the fright when discovering the corpse, an excellent example of how black actors were often exploited during the golden age.
Even in the edited TV version, this film is fraught with mystery and moves at a very fast pace. Of course, there's the typical number of red herrings thrown in and various clues to throw the audience off, but at under an hour, this gives the viewing audience to see inside the hearts and souls of law keepers, whom we see as ruthless and self serving on the surface, but every inch human where it counts. Etta McDaniel (Hattie's sister) gets a stereotypical servant role, overdoing it a bit on the fright when discovering the corpse, an excellent example of how black actors were often exploited during the golden age.
