Accused of Murder ** (1956, David Brian, Vera Ralston, Sidney Blackmer, Virginia Grey, Warren Stevens, Lee Van Cleef, Greta Thyssen) – Classic Movie Review 6544

‘FRAMED… she battled for life and love!’ Joe Kane’s 1956 film noir thriller Accused of Murder is lifted by intriguing and appealing performances from cult names

‘FRAMED… she battled for life and love!’ Producer-director Joseph [Joe] Kane’s 1956 American Trucolor crime thriller film Accused of Murder is a fairly feeble, largely uninvolving and rather slack-paced film noir, with a pretty dull hero and heroine, but it is lifted with some intriguing and appealing performances from cult names. It stars David Brian, Vera Ralston, Sidney Blackmer and Virginia Grey.

David Brian stars as a cop, Police Lieutenant Roy Hargis, who takes a shine to a nightclub singer, Ilona Vance (Vera Ralston), who is suspected of killing a bent attorney Frank Hobart (Sidney Blackmer) because she was the last person to see him alive. So Hargis attempts to prove Ilona’s innocence.

Alas Kane’s movie is more Poverty Row than Vanity Row, the title of W R Burnett’s source novel. But, nevertheless, there is considerable interest in the alluring B-movie cast.

Also in the cast are Virginia Grey as Sandra Lamoreaux, Warren Stevens as Stan ‘Scarface’ Wilbo, Lee Van Cleef as Police Sergeant Emmett Lackey, Barry Kelley as Police Captain Art Smedley, Richard Karlan as Chad Bayliss, Frank Puglia as Cesar Cipriano, Elisha Cook Jr as Whitey Pollock, Ian MacDonald as Trumble, Hank Worden, Robert Shayne, Claire Carlton and Greta Thyssen as Myra Bayliss.

Accused of Murder is directed by Joseph [Joe] Kane and produced by Joseph [Joe] Kane. This 74-minute film is made and released by Republic Pictures, is written by Robert Creighton [Bob] Williams and W R Burnett, based on the novel Vanity Row by W R Burnett, shot in Trucolor by Bud Thackery, and scored by R Dale Butts.

Ralston’s singing on You’re in Love (music by Buddy Bregman, lyrics by Herb Newman ) is dubbed.

It was released on 21 December 1956 in the US.

RIP Greta Thyssen.

RIP Danish film actress Greta Thyssen, who died on 6 January 2018, aged 90. She also appeared in Terror Is a Man, Three Blondes in His Life and Journey to the Seventh Planet. Thyssen arrived in the US after winning the Miss Denmark contest in 1952. She was Marilyn Monroe’s double in Bus Stop.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6544

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