I bow to no one in my admiration for James Mason, surely rated in the International rather than merely the UK Top Ten actors but even he should have thought twice before stepping into the ring with Raimu, who plyed this for Continental back in 1942 from an adaptation of the Simenon novel by Henri-Georges Clouzot, then Head of Scripts at Continental and shortly before he became a hyphenate writer-director. If anyone was going to take on the burnt-out lawyer who dries out to defend his estranged daughter on a trumped-up murder rap and ends up putting the town on trial Mason is as good as anyone they could have found and is the only reason for watching this piece of cheese. By bringing it forward twenty years they have allowed the 'swinging sixties' aspect to dominate to the films' detriment and even Bobby Darin who was capable of a half-decent performance (see: Captain Newman MD) comes on like a grotesque freak.

This is an odd choice of Simenon novel to adapt into a film. It provides for a good role for James Mason as the drunkard solicitor "Sawyer" - a bright, intelligent operator who has hits the skids somewhat after his wife abandoned him, and he became oddly estranged from his daughter "Angela" (an effective, almost aloof Geradine Chaplin),with whom he shares a home. Otherwise, the rest of the roles are weak, wet even. When her boyfriend "Jo" (Paul Bertoya) is accused of a murder, "Sawyer" determines to raise his game and defend the young man. To be fair, this is a small tour de force for the star, who does deliver well. The rest of the story borders on the facile. The collective surrounding "Angela" - a bunch of wealthy no-hope wasters with Bobby Darin and a very dapper looking Ian Ogilvy, are thoroughly disengaging and but for a suitably grumpy performance from James Hayter as chief magistrate "Hawkins" one could reasonably be forgiven for reaching for the fast forward button. The ending, doubtless a superlative piece of deduction from Mason is almost irrelevant - by this point I really couldn't care less about any of the characters and, indeed, may well have reached for a glass myself (it's not yet 10am, so perhaps not!). At best it's a mediocre short story that has little enough to sustain it for the viewer, sorry.

A very good actor, James Mason, in a unique role of alcoholic father, but very lucid in everything he does. A very young daughter of Chaplin, Geraldine, here Mason's daughter in the film, convincing, a unique presence. The other actors are not extraordinary, just as the story is not. Without James Mason, it would be a total boredom.