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IMDbPro

Circumstantial Evidence

  • 19351935
  • ApprovedApproved
  • 1h 7m
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
91
YOUR RATING
Chick Chandler in Circumstantial Evidence (1935)
Drama
A reporter sets out to provide how unreliable circumstantial evidence is by faking a murder and then taking the rap for it. However, the "fake" murder victim turns out to be really dead.A reporter sets out to provide how unreliable circumstantial evidence is by faking a murder and then taking the rap for it. However, the "fake" murder victim turns out to be really dead.A reporter sets out to provide how unreliable circumstantial evidence is by faking a murder and then taking the rap for it. However, the "fake" murder victim turns out to be really dead.
IMDb RATING
5.5/10
91
YOUR RATING
    • Charles Lamont
    • Ewart Adamson(adaptation)
    • Tom Terriss(story)
  • Stars
    • Chick Chandler
    • Shirley Grey
    • Arthur Vinton
    • Charles Lamont
    • Ewart Adamson(adaptation)
    • Tom Terriss(story)
  • Stars
    • Chick Chandler
    • Shirley Grey
    • Arthur Vinton
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 8User reviews
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos

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    Top cast

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    Chick Chandler
    Chick Chandler
    • James Richard 'Jim' Baldwin
    Shirley Grey
    Shirley Grey
    • Adrienne Grey
    Arthur Vinton
    Arthur Vinton
    • Fred Stevens
    Claude King
    Claude King
    • Ralph Winters
    Dorothy Revier
    Dorothy Revier
    • Bernice Winters
    Lee Moran
    Lee Moran
    • Spike Horton
    Carl Stockdale
    Carl Stockdale
    • George Malone
    Eddie Phillips
    Eddie Phillips
    • Harris
    Edward Keane
    Edward Keane
    • Judge Samuels
    Robert Frazer
    Robert Frazer
    • District Attorney
    Huntley Gordon
    Huntley Gordon
    • The Governor
    • (as Huntly Gordon)
    Lew Kelly
    • Detective Taylor
    Barbara Bedford
    Barbara Bedford
    • Mrs. Goodwin
    • (uncredited)
    Al Bridge
    Al Bridge
    • John Cassidy
    • (uncredited)
    Don Brodie
    Don Brodie
    • The Bailiff
    • (uncredited)
    Ralph Brooks
    • Joe
    • (uncredited)
    Eddy Chandler
    Eddy Chandler
    • Prison Guard Henderson
    • (uncredited)
    Phyllis Crane
    Phyllis Crane
    • A Dumb Dame
    • (uncredited)
      • Charles Lamont
      • Ewart Adamson(adaptation) (screenplay)
      • Tom Terriss(story)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      This film's earliest documented telecasts took place in Cincinnati Friday 11 November 1949 on WKRC (Channel 11), in New York City Thursday 12 January 1950 on the DuMont Television Network's WABD (Channel 5), and in Los Angeles Wednesday 22 March 1950 on KECA (Channel 7).
    • Connections
      Referenced in WKRP in Cincinnati: Circumstantial Evidence (1982)

    User reviews8

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    5/10
    Not Meant to be Howlingly Funny But It Is!
    A number of films are entitled "Circumstantial Evidence." Director Charles Lamont's 1935 attack on the use of circumstantial evidence to send defendants to the electric chair might have been intended as a lesson for the "B" movie public but the end result is funny to viewers today and I doubt was taken seriously back then.

    Circumstantial evidence is, simply, anything other than direct evidence, the latter being, usually, confessions and eyewitness accounts. Even fingerprints and - nowadays - DNA can be examples of circumstantial evidence since there may be varying explanations for their association with the crime, some quite exculpatory.

    In this potboiler, an unusual one at that, ace reporter Jim Baldwin (the mezzanine idol Chick Chandler) is outraged at the onset of the story as a defendant is sentenced to death for murder based solely on circumstantial evidence (hardly a rare verdict then or now). Baldwin mulls over how to bring this grave injustice to public attention with his fiancee, the beautiful Adrienne Grey (the in-real-life beautiful Shirley Grey). Adrienne, a gal artist for the paper, is also being pursued by syrupy suave colleague Fred Stevens (Arthur Vinton).

    Baldwin gets the bright idea to set up various scenes that will convince all that he may well intend to harm Stevens who will later disappear after being "murdered" at his home, the building consumed by fire. Stevens thinks this is a capital idea and agrees to leave town, his remains being an old skeleton to be found in the burnt house. Maybe one reason for his willingness to depart is his desire to end a torrid affair with the young and pretty Bernice Winters (Dorothy Revier), married to a guy much, much older than her. In 1935, this kind of adulterous liaison wasn't pointedly shown on the screen that often.

    The fly in the ointment is that while setting fire to his home, Stevens is shot to death by an unseen assailant. His body is quickly identified.

    Baldwin gets arrested, tried, convicted and whisked off to the Death House for an appointment with Old Sparky. The rest of the film is about Adrienne's effort, together with Baldiwn's faithful friends, to prove he didn't kill Stevens.

    The acting is howlingly funny at points. In the newsroom, the courtroom and in his cell Baldwin declaims against the evil of circumstantial evidence, the politicization of the district attorney's office and the public's lack of compassion for defendants who deserve to be executed but who should be accorded some measure of sympathy rather than callous rejoicing at their fate.

    It's a silly movie. Charles Lamont was an incredibly prolific director who went on to truly great movies such as "Ma and Pa Kettle" and several Abbott and Costello buffooneries.

    5/10 (but it is fun to watch).
    helpful•7
    5
    • lawprof
    • May 26, 2004

    Details

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    • Release date
      • March 30, 1935 (United States)
      • United States
      • English
    • Production company
      • Chesterfield Motion Pictures Corporation (I)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 7 minutes
      • Black and White

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