Good concept, poorly executed.

Beautiful, moving film.

The first must-see film of the year.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Scotland Yard's Detective Superintendent Hollarin (John Mills) arrives in the small town of Oakley Park to investigate the murder of a young girl called Molly Stevens whom was found strangled with a stocking in the grounds of an upmarket tennis club. Virtually the entire town falls under suspicion including her former boyfriend Peter Crowley (Alec McCowen) whom she deserted in favour of the club secretary Mark Roper (Derek Farr) who also had a reason for wanting her dead since he is a married man and he also got her pregnant. If that had come out he would have lost his job. The town's physician, Dr Fenner (Charles Coburn), is being blackmailed by Roper who knows that he left his practice in Canada when a wrong diagnosis resulted in one of his patients dying and his niece, Elizabeth (Barbara Bates), agreed to give Roper a false alibi in order to protect her uncle. In addition, the prominent Dixon family's daughter Fiona (Elizabeth Seal) was very friendly with Molly: they used to frequent a dubious nightclub which is facing an illegal gambling charge, get drunk and go joy riding with boys. This angered her father, Charles (Geoffrey Keen), who is a town councillor and is earmarked to become Oakley Park's Mayor and did not like the thought of his daughter keeping that kind of company. The police gradually close in on the murderer, but not before Fiona is killed while a dance is taking place at the club...As a straightforward murder mystery it is something of a let down because the identity of the killer is fairly obvious by about half way into the film's running time. Shame on the screenwriters Ken Hughes and Robert Westerby! Nevertheless, this mysteriously obscure little film is still well worth the watch thanks to strong realistic characterisations, vigorous direction by John Guillermin in what must have been one of his first 'A' features and excellent acting all round.John Mills offers a career best performance as the tough, dogged police superintendent who never plays by the rules and quite often finding himself in hot water with his superiors and the townsfolk who do not like his sometimes unorthodox methods and, above all, resent an outsider meddling in their affairs. Derek Farr, a familiar face of British cinema at that time, also stands out playing the dishonest and thoroughly dislikeable club secretary Mark Roper. In addition to his cheating on his wife and blackmailing the local doctor, he also lies about his war service in the RAF claiming to have been a distinguished fighter pilot yet Mills discovers he was only a lowly member of the ground crew who was dishonorably discharged for theft. There is an extremely effective scene where the Superintendent confronts him about this in quite an aggressive manner and we learn that the reason for his anger towards Roper was that his wife and child were killed during an air raid. And when he attempted to volunteer for the RAF himself, he was turned down and he resents anyone who lies about their war service like he did.The sense of small town distrust of outsiders is well conveyed and Guillermin opted to shoot the film in Weybridge, Surrey, England, which serves the plot very well. Basil Emmott, a lighting cameraman of prolific output whose work helped lift numerous 'B' pictures above the average, heightens the strong sense of place and the mysteriousness with his rich black and white camera-work. The suspense reaches fever pitch at the climax where Mills climbs up the steeple of a church to confront his killer who is threatening to commit suicide from throwing himself off the roof. The murder scenes are also very well done and are sufficient to send a chill down the spine even though the composer, Tristram Carey, opted to play a harpsichord over them predating the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple films by a few years.

Once again it would seem that I watched an entirely different film to the majority of those who have posted here. The film I saw was a crude and horribly misguided attempt to play Hollywood at its own game and needless to say it turned out to be game, set and match, to Sunset Boulevard. John Mills fails hopelessly to convince as the (would be) tough talking maverick cop, complete with clichés such as pushing his trilby to the back of his head. The usual suspects who peopled British films in the 50s are wheeled out, Geoffrey Keen, Alec McCowan, Derek Farr, Dandy Nicols, supplemented for reasons best known to the producers, by Charles Coburn. There's a killer on the loose and the suspense of waiting for him/her to strike again constitutes a photo finish with watching paint dry. For an encore the killer climbs a church steeple and Mills goes up after him - this was done ten times better in Mine Own Executioner a decade earlier with Burgess Meredith following Keiron Moore to a roof. Moore failed to survive, would that Alec McCowan had followed suit.

The calm of prosperous Oakley Park is shattered when a local woman is found murdered. A Scotland Yard detective is called in to solve the case. He unmasks the murderer but not before another woman is killed. This picture contains some of the stock characters we see in many thrillers; the woman killed just because she is sexually attractive, the detective who gets results by breaking the rules and a community of outwardly respectable people who all have their dirty little secrets. These elements could have resulted in a predictable formulaic thriller but "Town on Trial" is lifted onto a higher class by the writing, direction and acting.The acting is consistently good from the bit part players up to the stars. The two outstanding performances are given by Alec McCowen as a suspect and John Mills as the detective.I would recommend this film to any viewer.

I too watched the Channel 4 showing. Must disagree with the previous comment. I thought it was a very mediocre film, especially when you think the story was penned by Francis Durbridge. As for the plot, well please tell what were the motives for the murders? I will agree, an excellent film to watch, if you are looking out for those great 'B' film character actors. ( uncredited appearance of Hal Osmond, then only 38, looking thirty years older). The petrol forecourt scene, and chastisement of Superintendent John Mills by the bicycling village 'plod' were great little scenes. Who was the actor who played the 'bobby'?