Review of A Death of Innocence

Shelley Winters makes a great performance here as the mother from Idaho going to New York to face the trial of her daughter for homicide. Naturally she gets confused by the imposing impressions of the great city and its thronging masses, and she immediately gets importuned by opportunists who want to make money out of the case, like a journalist, who knows her business. When Buffy, the daughter, first appears on the screen you must like her mother feel that she is incapable of any wickedness, but gradually an interesting case is psychologically exposed and wrapped up. John Randolph plays the father, who is equally convinced it must all be some misunderstanding, and the lawyer, Arthur Kennedy, really puts some effort in making the best of it. However, Buffy (Tisha Sterling) gets the last word, which settles the case but unsettles everyone. The most interesting part of the film is the careful examination of Shelley Winters' gradual awakening to an alien reality shattering her universe, as the truth as always is implacable and irrevocable. Buffy's final triumph is a grotesque and devastating turning of the tables in the most drastic possible way, and it is a great scene. At times you have to wonder, is it really Buffy who is on trial or is it her parents?