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Circumstantial Evidence is a 1945 American film noir directed by John Larkin and starring Michael O'Shea, Lloyd Nolan, and Trudy Marshall.[1]

Circumstantial Evidence
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	John Larkin
Screenplay by	Robert F. Metzler Samuel Ornitz
Story by	Sam Duncan Nat Ferber
Produced by	William Girard
Starring	Michael O'Shea Lloyd Nolan
Cinematography	Harry Jackson
Edited by	Norman Colbert
Music by	David Buttolph
Distributed by	Twentieth Century-Fox
Release date	April 20, 1945 (1945-04-20) (United States)
Running time	68 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Three witnesses swear they saw Joe Reynolds murder grumpy baker Kenny (Ben Welden) with a hatchet. Joe claims Kenny's fatal head wound was the result of a fall as they argued—the baker hit his head on an oven as he fell—but the eyewitness testimony prevails and Joe is sentenced to death in the electric chair. His buddy Sam Lord has an uphill struggle to prove his innocence.

Cast

• Michael O'Shea as Joe Reynolds
• Lloyd Nolan as Sam Lord
• Trudy Marshall as Agnes Hannon
• Billy Cummings as Pat Reynolds
• Ruth Ford as Mrs. Simms
• Reed Hadley as Prosecutor
• Roy Roberts as Marty Hannon
• Scotty Beckett as Freddy Hanlon

Uncredited (in order of appearance)

Byron Foulger	Bolger
John Eldredge	Judge White
Selmer Jackson	Warden
John Hamilton	Governor Hanlon
Ben Welden	Kenny, the murdered baker
Dorothy Adams	Bolger's wife
Edward Earle	Doctor
William B. Davidson	Chairman
Ralph Dunn	Police officer Cleary
Ray Teal	Policeman
Lee Phelps	Policeman
Thomas E. Jackson	Detective
Sam Flint	Prison board member
George Melford	Prison board member
John Davidson	Lawyer
J. Farrell MacDonald	Jury foreman
Max Wagner	Truck driver
James Flavin	Guard
Ken Christy	Guard
Eddie Dunn	Guard
Lee Shumway	Guard
Lester Dorr	Prisoner
Emmett Vogan	Bridge player
Harry Strang	Prison guard

Critical reception

Bosley Crowther, the film critic for The New York Times panned the film, writing, "Darryl Zanuck must have had his back turned when Circumstantial Evidence slipped out the front gate of the Twentieth Century-Fox Studio. For a sillier and more tediously worked-out piece of crime melodrama than the picture which opened yesterday at the Rialto hasn't reached Broadway in a long, long time. Circumstantial Evidence is so full of hackneyed and incredible plot turns that one can never get even slightly interested in the involved set of circumstances which almost send a quite innocent, if belligerent, Michael O'Shea to the electric chair."[2]

References

External links

• Circumstantial Evidence at IMDb
• Circumstantial Evidence at the TCM Movie Database
• Circumstantial Evidence film trailer on YouTube

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