With its small town setting, use of a local 'roadhouse' and the casting of Charles Coburn and Barbara Bates it's fairly obvious the British-made crime melodrama "Town on Trial" had its eye on the American market, (even the title sounds more American than British). John Mills is the policeman investigating the murder of local good-time girl Molly, (Magda Miller),and the movie is told in flashback. All we know is that the killer is one of a group of men seen watching Molly bounce around on the tennis court in the opening sequence and director John Guillermin does a fine job of keeping us guessing as to which one it might be. All the performances, particularly Mills and Coburn, are excellent and as murder mysteries go this one is surprisingly intelligent and consistently enjoyable. One of Guillermin's better efforts.

I watched this on television many a moon ago as a young teenager and I'm now over 60. I really liked this movie and would love to see it again. Since I like British movies of the '40s-early '60s I probably wouldn't be too disappointed seeing it again. I especially like thrillers, suspense, and mysteries. I thought the way they fingerprinted every male in town trying to find the killer was great (I read somewhere that that was used in a real case). Also the notes found with Ezekiel 23:5 "And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours . . ." because of the first victim's reputation and the author's opinion of women in general had me running to a Bible and I actually memorized it.

The young man climbing the church tower/belfry (or some high precipice) when he felt cornered really had me hold my breath.

This is all from memory, mind you. It hasn't even been shown on television here in the States in years. I lived in the Los Angeles area when I did see it.

I really really wish it would be made available in a Region 1 DVD though at this point I'd probably take any format and any region I could get!

When "Town on Trial" begins, you hear the voice of the murderer before he commits the crime! You see him looking at pretty Molly at the country club...and you hear him saying how she has it coming because she's one of THOSE sort of girls! Well, Molly certainly was pretty and liked to show off her figure...and the sicko thought this meant he was entitled to kill her!!

Police Superintendent Halloran (John Mills) is assigned to the case. And, unfortunately, it's not a quick and easy case to solve...and some of it is because the rich folks he questions sometimes have a strong sense of entitlement. In fact, the more he investigates, the more these folks put pressure on his superiors to take him off the case! What's to come of this?

This is a very good film. Sure, the story is good but the reason I liked it was the very fine acting of Mills. He was a heck of a good actor and made even average material well above average. Well worth your time.