Verdict

Cayatte is the Frenchman's Stanley Kramer, with an unswerving penchant for expounding knotty points of law and morals in a narrative framework, giving audiences a lot of fun and education all at once. Here, Sophia Loren's worthless son is up for trial under clauses 296, 297, 302, 304 and 332 of the French penal code. Despite this daunting array of transgressions, the judge (Gabin) urges his jurors to acquit the wretch, for Loren has his diabetic wife locked up, and his conscience goes to pot as a result. Acting and direction are uniformly sober, and you don't learn a thing.