The Sword and the Balance

Three young men are under suspicion of kidnapping and killing a small boy. In all likelihood two of them are really involved and one is not. The past of all three is questionable and filled with violence. Neither the police nor the court can decide how to solve the puzzle. The film takes as its subject not the finding of the culprit but what it means to pass judgement without certain knowledge. The account puts the viewer into the same uncertainty and does not say which of them is innocent. The pressure of the press and of public opinion stands inside the process. Anthony Perkins and Jean-Claude Brialy appear in Andre Cayatte’s hundred and thirty eight minute French film, completed in 1963.