Town on Trial

John Guillermin's mystery is set in a well-off suburb outside London. When a young woman is murdered, suspicion begins circulating among the members of the local tennis club, and Inspector Halloran arrives from Scotland Yard to take the case. What is interesting is less the solution than the resistance a closed community puts up against a policeman from outside it: class, the fear of losing standing and simple neighbourliness turn statements into something other than statements. John Mills plays the inspector, with Charles Coburn and Derek Farr against him. It also leaves behind an unintended but very clear portrait of Britain in the 1950s. The solution is left unspoiled here.