Never Look Back (1952)

Rosamund John is quite good here as the newly "silked" barrister "Anne Maitland". She is at home one evening when her ex-boyfriend "Ransome" (Guy Middleton) shows up claiming homelessness after a row with his girlfriend. She agrees to put him for the night but that's just the start of her problems. When he returns home next morning, he discovers that his gal is no more and that he is prime suspect in a murder investigation being led by the tenacious "Insp. Gaynor" (John Warwick). It now falls on her to defend him - but that's not without risk to her reputation or to her current relationship with her fiancé "Nigel" (Hugh Sinclair) with whom "Guy" is quite prepared to spar as both realise that they are in love with the formidable lawyer. It's when a witness turns up claiming to have seen something crucially important to the defence that the film starts to become interesting and the courtroom drama more tense and unpredictable. As courtroom dramas go, this is well paced with a solid story and provides a good opportunity for a woman to play a convincingly intelligent role in what would have been, in 1950s Britain, very much a man's world. Certainly better than your average daytime cinema fayre and well worth an hour or so.