Trial Without Jury (1950)

Kent Taylor (Boston Blackie on the TV series) comes into an office at night to see why Theodore Von Eltz turned down his last play. Von Eltz is getting ready to leave for Honolulu. They argue and Taylor leaves. On his way out he finds a scarf and tucks it into his pocket. The papers the next morning announce Von Eltz' murder. Taylor goes to see his girlfriend, Audrey Long, who is a theatrical agent. She suggests that he rewrite his play to fit the death of Von Eltz, but he tells her he will be the main suspect, and that he has the suspect's scarf. Just then her brother (Robert Rockwell) comes in, a policeman who has been assigned to the case. Taylor decides to indeed rewrite the play, and use it to expose the real murderer.

Rockwell assembles all the main players at the  theater to begin the investigation. They tell him what they intend to do, and he tells them that Von Eltz was strangled and that two strange fingerprints were found. Long and Taylor listen to the investigation on the intercom. Barbara Billingsley was Von Eltz' partner, and the executor of his will, which enrages his wife. Barbra Fuller was a lady friend actress of Von Eltz's. Stanley Waxman was his partner. Elmo Lowe was a backer of his show. John Whitney has a leading role in the play. All are suspects. Rockwell tells Taylor that he was seen going into the office building. Then Taylor gets a threatening telegram. A man breaks into his apartment to get the scarf, and attacks Taylor, but gets away.

The suspects assemble again as play rehearsal begins. Accusations fly in every direction. They all leave for lunch, but Taylor stays to work on the play. In Billingsley's purse he finds a catalog with a picture of the scarf he found, and draws a picture of it. Then Rockwell tells Long that he thinks Taylor is guilty, and that if she conceals anything pertinent she will be arrested as an accessory, even if she is his sister.

The play opens amid much tension. A man concealed in darkness strangles Von Eltz with a rope. At intermission, Rockwell calls the play's management together to see who introduced a phone cord into the play, and Taylor admits to having been in the office. Rockwell arrests him. Before Taylor leaves, he asks Long to introduce the duplicate scarf she has knitted into the play somewhere to upset the culprit. At the police station Taylor makes a break and hides in a truck in the alley. At the theater the murderer is moving around, his face always in the shadows. Taylor makes it back to the theater. He knocks at the door while the culprit is trying to strangle Long. He breaks in and they struggle, but the killer breaks away. Taylor walks onto the stage as if he were one of the actors, and shows the scarf to Fuller. Her father is the murderer, but she has not yet revealed who it is. It turns out to be Lowe, who was not her real father, but had promised her mother to take care of her.




Taylor


Fuller