Cross-Examination

This courtroom drama is very poorly structured, almost self-destructively. Director Richard Thorpe went on to direct major motion pictures for major studios, but delivered total hackwork this time out.

Structure has one witness after another called to the stand and their testimony illustrated by a flashback. Sometimes the flashbacks overlap, but not in an interesting or dramatic "Rashomon" fashion, but merely redundant, adding to the accumulated tedium. The man in the audience writing (in cursive fashion yet) his impressions of the testimony to spoon feed the viewer is not merely dated but insulting, as if the audience was too dum bot follow the story without assistance.

Casting is extremely weak, with Warner as the defense attorney not balanced by having a relatively incompetent prosecutor (latter's acting and dialogue are both deficient). The sentimental ending is a total crock, and both "leads" (not really, in an ensemble cast) nonentity Don Dillaway and underutilized Sally Blane) have zero impact.

The version I watched ran only an hour, which is more than a reel less than the published 74 minute running time, but not only seemed complete, but was excruciatingly ponderous even at that length.