THE TOUCH OF VENUS (1948) was the sole other film directed by William A Seiter that I had watched to date - and I really liked it, especially the incredibly gorgeous Aca Gardner. This morning, I watched THE CASE AGAINST MRS AMES, done 12 years earlier.
They are two very different films, but both have pleasing touches of humor bordering occasionally on screwball.
Madeleine Carroll is to THE CASE what Ava was to TOUCH, a stunning female who leaves no male indifferent. Carroll plays a widow, mother of a six year old boy, and she stands accused of murdering her husband who, the viewer finds in due course, was not exactly an altar boy in life. Things get to a head when Carroll's very wealthy mother in law decides to keep the child.
In a court case full of adjournments, delays, deceit, and other malarkey, Carroll's defense lawyer (Alan Mowbray) thinks she is guilty, but somehow she is acquitted. That is when the mother in law - who has been poisoning the little boy's mind blaming Carroll for her son's death - retains Mowbray's services, and Carroll decides to do her own defense.
Not too successfully, and that is when Carroll asks prosecutor Brent to investigate the murder case so her good name is cleared.
I watched a poor copy on Youtube off a VHS tape, so I cannot usefully comment on the quality of the mostly interior photography but the script contains sharp and articulate dialogue, even if cause and effect are not always clear.
Thankfully only 85 minutes long and definitely worth watching. 8/10.
