A 1937 film from director Mervyn LeRoy (Little Caesar/Quo Vadis) dealing w/the murder of a young student. It's Confederate Memorial Day in a small town & the town is all a-bustle w/a parade & throngs of people who've come out to see it. At some point a woman, Lana Turner, is seen entering a business school building by its custodian who later turns away a suitor looking for her since at that point the school has been closed. When no one can confirm Turner's whereabouts, a search is made in the school where her body is discovered dumped down an elevator shaft. From there a circus of attention commences to find the culprit w/a reporter hounding any leads he can find & the district attorney, played by Claude Rains sporting an unwieldy Southern accent, wanting to get a political boost to his career by trying this case feels his suspect, Turner's teacher, Edward Norris, is his man even though the majority of the evidence is circumstantial. W/Norris' wife, Gloria Dickson, standing by his side, the trial commences w/Norris being railroaded toward a conviction (they wanted the death penalty but he ends up getting life) w/a tragic turn of events occurring as Norris is being transported to jail. Ahead of its time to be sure w/its depiction of mob rule & absolutism on its mind, it suffers from the ham acting on display, Rains being a prime example, which by the time The Ox-Bow Incident came around in 1943, all the elements of this story would be better realized. Also of note because I would assume this was a pre-code film, a shot of Turner wearing the tightest of dresses walking the street went by w/o a batting of a censor's eye. Also starring consummate character actor Elisha Cook, Jr as a witness.
Review of They Won't Forget
