There seems to me as a writer and critic to be a bad tendency among U.S. reviewers to confuse their emotional and unaccountable reactions with information. For instance, I regard Jeff Chandler as a very good classical actor; I assert this because he has the vocal power, sufficient emotional voltage and the high intelligence to play characters in the distant past, future, positions of nobility and professions. But I also claim to be able to tell among his strongest portrayals, and those which were less successful. In "A Tattered Dress", for instance, the dress referring to the robes which cloak the naked female statue of justice, I believe Chandler has one of his most fascinating parts in this film by anyone's standards. And one of his best successes.He plays a lawyer who was refused employment as a poor student once he had been admitted to the bar in the Depression era; to overcome this injustice, he began taking clients who were criminals, who could pay him. In the years since then, he has become a famous and deeply- hated lawyer, because of those criminals whom he represents. The fascinating twist to this Jack Arnold directed noir is that he wins his original case. A husband had been accused of having killed his wife's lover, after she has come with "a tattered dress'. Then, thanks to collusion between the town's average-guy closet-dictator sheriff, and those supporting him, the lawyer finds himself accused of having bribed a juror during the case. His estranged wife returns to stand by him; he elects to be defended by the best lawyer he knows, himself. and this proves to alienate the townsfolk even further. He shakes the juror's testimony, but he must resort to a magnificent last defense, equating the tattered dress with justice itself that is thwarted, to plead his case as a human being who has been wronged more than he has wronged anyone. he is acquitted, which leads to a strongly-written climax and ending. This is a well-made and well-directed thriller; besides veteran Arnold's direction, this B/W drama features original music by Frank Skinner and Henry Mancini, fine cinematography by Carl E. Guthrie, outstanding art direction by Alexander Golitzen and Bill Newberry, set decorations by John P. Austin and Russell A Gausman. The very good costumes were the creation of J.A. Morely, Jr., with makeup being the work of Bud Westmore. Among the cast, Jeff Chandler's work as the lawyer accused is award level and memorable, varied in tone and nuanced. Others who brought to life George Zuckerman's finely-crafted script, drawn from a novel included Jack Carson as the sheriff, Jeanne Crain as the lawyer's wife, Gail Russell as the juror in question, Philip Reed as the husband, plus talented Edward Andrews Elaine Edwards, George Tobias, Edward Platt, Alexander Lockwood, Paul Birch, Edwin Jerome and William Schallert. This is a film that must be judged I assert by what it is, not what any observer wished it might have been. It is a very powerful indictment of U.s. societal justice as long ago as the 1930s; and of the citizens of a representative town who allow their prejudices to interfere with their judgment. Similar movies had been made, in the same era as this, about other democratically-elected governments and their statist countries, such as England and France. But the content of this scorching indictment of postmodernist truth-twisters and their all-too-willing victims is a very United States story, and one coming from the H.U.A.C era as well. A very strong film.
