Another movie ID question for the experts out there. This one has been nagging at me for a while. Here is the general outline of the plot (as I recall):
Two guys discuss how a District Attorney is relying too heavily on circumstantial evidence when trying cases, resulting in some dubious convictions. After hearing about a recent murder, they devise a plan to plant circumstantial evidence that will tie one of them to the crime and set it up so that he is arrested and tried. The idea is that after the trial has gone on for a while, the partner who is not in jail will come forward with all of the evidence exonerating the accused and embarrassing the DA. Before that can happen, however, the guy on the outside is accidentally killed and there is no one else who knew about their plan. The trial goes forward as he desperately tries to convince people of his innocence.
The movie could be either in B&W or color. I saw it on TV decades ago, but I cannot recall anything about the actors or title. Does it sound familiar to anyone?
Wow, thanks. That was embarrassingly fast. The movie I was thinking of certainly is Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. From the IMDB entry, I see that it was directed by Fritz Lang. I never would have guessed that–it seemed rather pulply, like a studio picture. I guess his cachet diminished with age, going from Metropolis and M to The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse.
I am certainly going to seek it out again. I will also have a go at the 2009 remake.
Are you kidding? Fritz Lang was big on pulp - and those classics you mention were extremely pulpy in their own way. Early german cinema has all kinds of stories, from drama to psychological horror to detective to action-adventure - and they were all rather corny. Didn’t mean they weren’t good.