Guilty? ** (1956, John Justin, Barbara Laage, Donald Wolfit, Stephen Murray) – Classic Movie Review 13,404

John Justin stars in the 1956 British mystery film Guilty? as a solicitor and amateur detective who tries to save a former French Resistance heroine on trial at the Old Bailey for murdering her ex-lover. 

French film director Edmond T Gréville’s 1956 British mystery thriller film Guilty? [Je Plaide Non Coupable] is based on Michael Gilbert’s novel Death Has Deep Roots, and stars John Justin, Barbara Laage, Donald Wolfit, and Stephen Murray.

John Justin and Barbara Laage are top billed in this largely forgettable, mostly plodding, frankly incredible Anglo-French Fifties crime mystery about a young British solicitor, Nap Rumbold (Justin), who goes to France to try to clear a former French Resistance heroine (Andree Debar) on trial at London’s Old Bailey criminal court for murdering her ex-lover.

While in France, heroic sleuth Nap Rumbold (Justin) gets the help of a sultry cop called Jacqueline Delbois (Laage) in exposing the identities of a band of counterfeiters. Donald Wolfit (as the judge), Russell Napier (as the inspector), Stephen Murray (as Summers) and Sydney Tafler (as Camino) prop up the acting and help the piece struggle along.

Admittedly, though, the plot is busy and unusual enough, and the direction is sufficiently pacy, with Gréville and his actors partly papering over the cracks, with John Justin an effective and appealing star.

Director Gréville based the script he writes with Maurice J Wilson and Ernest Dudley on Michael Gilbert’s dated novel Death Has Deep Roots.

It was shot from November 14, 1955 to January 15, 1956 at Beaconsfield Film Studios, Buckinghamshire, England, and released in France on April 11, 1956 and in the UK on September 14, 1956.

Justin’s finest hour was his début in The Thief of Bagdad. French actress Laage was busy in the Fifties and popped up again in Truffaut’s Domicile Conjugale in the Seventies.

John Justin.

The cast

The cast are John Justin as Nap Rumbold, Barbara Laage as Jacqueline Delbois, Donald Wolfit as judge, Stephen Murray as Summers, Norman Wooland as Pelton, Frank Villard as Pierre Lemaire, Andree Debar as Vicki Martin, Leslie Perrins as Poynter, Hugh Morton as Rumbold Senior, Andre Mikhelson as Santos, Raf De La Torre as ‘doctor’, Felix Clement as Maitre Gimelet, Margo Lion as Madame Gimelet, Lupovici as Valdi, Michael Anthony as Julian Welles, Betty Stockfeld as Mrs Roper, Sydney Tafler as Camino, Russell Napier as Inspector Hobson, and Kynaston Reeves as Colonel Wright.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,404

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