Cinema: The New Pictures, Apr. 8, 1957

The Tattered Dress (Universal-International) is a courtroom melodrama. The hero (Jeff Chandler), cast as "the greatest trial lawyer since Clarence Darrow," is a sort of jukebox genius who will sing almost any tune for almost anybody who provides the coin. When a young hellionaire (Philip Reed) murders his wife's boy friend. Lawyer Chandler finagles an acquittal. For the next hour or so the pattern of the plot looks like something perpetrated by a drunken silkworm. Is the sheriff (Jack Carson) the crook? Is the hero the villain? Is the lawyer the defendant? Does anybody care? Actor Chandler seems to care...

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