mark.waltz Review of Moment of Indiscretion

Moment of Indiscretion (1958)

Her indiscretion may only have been for a moment, but it's 70 tedious minutes.

[3/10 · 15 April 2022]

As the film begins, the judge in a trial is telling the jury that by the evidence given, they should all agree to find the defendant, Lana Morris, guilty of murder. We then flashback to her meeting with a former fiance, then as she's leaving, witnessing a murder downstairs from where she's standing. After the killer leaves, she runs to the body, then flees from the building. Evidence left behind and her lack of an alibi end up with her on trial for murder, and it's ironic that the man that she saw stab the woman is involved in the investigation. The fact that she only had met the victim one previous time (and that was briefly) really gave her no motive and the evidence that was given to the court was very circumstantial, so this is a weak case to begin with. Ronald Howard as her husband and John Van Eyssen as the actual killer are bland in supporting roles, and Morris isn't really very interesting either. This is a below-average British quota quickie, with a script that tries to put all the pieces together in a way that tries to fool the audience that is being intelligent, but only the most foolish of audiences would by anything that the script is selling.