Once again it would seem that I watched an entirely different film to the majority of those who have posted here. The film I saw was a crude and horribly misguided attempt to play Hollywood at its own game and needless to say it turned out to be game, set and match, to Sunset Boulevard. John Mills fails hopelessly to convince as the (would be) tough talking maverick cop, complete with clichés such as pushing his trilby to the back of his head. The usual suspects who peopled British films in the 50s are wheeled out, Geoffrey Keen, Alec McCowan, Derek Farr, Dandy Nicols, supplemented for reasons best known to the producers, by Charles Coburn. There's a killer on the loose and the suspense of waiting for him/her to strike again constitutes a photo finish with watching paint dry. For an encore the killer climbs a church steeple and Mills goes up after him - this was done ten times better in Mine Own Executioner a decade earlier with Burgess Meredith following Keiron Moore to a roof. Moore failed to survive, would that Alec McCowan had followed suit.
Review of Town on Trial
