The Jury's Secret

The plot to this B movie has an interesting twist and although it lacks some production values, makes up for it with some nice work by the cast.

Kent Taylor is not well remembered today, but he does some subtle work in his role as the juror. Fay Wray does an exemplary job, especially after she learns to understand the reality behind the story she is covering for her newspaper. Even Halliwell Hobbes is deftly convincing after unwittingly supplying Wray's character with the information she cunningly solicits.

The only downfall to the film is the ending. It is actually rather disappointing and odd, as if they needed to wrap up the film and get on to the next one. However, the rest of the film is really quite well done despite the short length.

Kent Taylor wrote the Grea American Novel, and it flopped. So he left fiancee Fay Wray and moved to a small city where he became the ghost writer for newspaper owner Samuel Hinds' editorials in return for money and stock market advice. After Hinds' opposition to flood control legislation results in the second flood in two years, this time killing four hundred people, Taylor has had enough. He has enough money. When he discovers that Hinds has ruined him, he kills the man in a fury. Luckily for him, agitator Larry J. Blake burst in on Hinds immediately after Taylor has left, and becomes the perfect fall guy without Taylor doing a thing. Imagine his joy when Miss Wray shows up covering the trial for her newspaper.... and his state of mind when he has to sit on the jury!

Edward Sloman's last movie has a good set-up, a good script, and for once does a fair job of depicting the judicial process -- enlivened by a few more objections than I've ever seen. The performances are a bit broad; Sloman was more a visual stylist than a dialogue director, and there isn't much opportunity for him to excel here. He left the movies and went comfortably into writing and directing radio for the rest of his career. He died in 1972 at the age of 89.