Bellamy Trial

Two defendants are on trial for a murder they did not commit. The story is based on a love triangle, with a gruesome scene for a 1929 movie. A plaster cast of the dead woman's bust is displayed in court with an open knife wound into which the prosecution repeatedly jabs a knife. Middleton, the D.A. doing the thrusting, was an accomplished vaudevillian with the kind of crisp diction film producers sought desperately in order to overcome the shaky sound techniques. A great deal of dialog--but only toward the end of the picture--was inserted after the fact to accommodate burgeoning public interest in the talkies. It is well done, though, and coupled with the capable a...