Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

DKosty123 Since this was made in 1937, I got a major surprise when I saw this film. It is a film that is second to few, and shocking in how it was made. Unlike many films with court trials of a murderer, this one will surprise anyone who has not seen it. The disclaimer at the beginning of the film is upfront that this film is fiction. Based on Ward Greenes novel -"Death In The Deep South" there are several things that make this film outstanding.Claude Rains as DA Andy Griffin is outstanding in pursuit of a murderer of a young woman in a town where the previous 2 murders remain unsolved. He realizes this murder as his opportunity to go on to bigger and better things. Before the trial begins he has the town in a ferment. The town founders plead with him to protect their interests in their small town."You should have thought of all this before your papers started splashing front page headlines about this." You started making this trial too big for you. Now it is out of control. You owners of all the media in town should have thought of that before. Then he turns them down saying he can not do anything about it, and admits that he will get a conviction regardless to get justice for Mary Clays Death. It also advances his career. (Recently, the Main Stream Media in the United States got an issue out of control to the point that this movie illustrates, so sadly this film does the same thing years earlier).What is truly different about this movie, is that it is left in the air at the end who really killed Mary Clay. All the evidence presented is circumstantial, but this film leaves it as a parlor game. Sure Griffin gets Professor Robert Hale (Edward Norris) convicted, but the film deliberately does not prove beyond any doubt whether or not he is really the killer. Otto Kruger plays Lawyer Gleason who is defending Hale, but he has little chance against the railroad the media and Andy Griffin have created. "Since when does evidence consist of here-say prove a Defendants guilt? Andy Griffin sums it up as "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!"A lot of people weigh in on both sides. Mary Clays 3 brothers weigh in heavily and eventually get their justice. So watch this one with a fervor of playing the parlor game, did Professor Hale with no motive actually kill Mary Clay? Was it her supposed boy friend? Was it Redwine (Clinton Rosemond) the janitor guy in the building? Was it the jealous girlfriend who had a crush on the teacher Hale just like Mary? Or was it somebody else? Time to get Ellery Queen only he is not available for this one.

bkoganbing From the murder of Stanford White to the O.J. Simpson case there are about 25 or so cases that have been labeled the 'trial of the century'. Another one of those was the Leo Frank case where a Jewish man and a northerner was tried and found guilty of the murder of Mary Phagan in Georgia. From that case the novel and the film They Won't Forget was constructed with the names and the religion of the defendant changed to protect God knows what.Even with the name changed to a white bread WASP name of Hale, Warner Brothers was taking a chance on losing the southern market with the making of They Won't Forget. Edward Norris as the outsider, teacher at a small business school in a southern town is a man totally caught in the regional prejudices of a section of the country that is still fighting the War between the states.Norris is accused of murdering young Lana Turner in her breakthrough role as an attractive and saucy young teenager. Though there is nothing but circumstantial evidence pointing to him and it could point to a few others, he's the most convenient one to prosecute because he's not of the community. So reasons Claude Rains an ambitious prosecutor who figures that a conviction in a notorious case will propel his political career upward. Rains portrays a man of frightening ambition and a type we're all too familiar with in real life.Although the Leo Frank case took place in the teen years and this film is set in the contemporary Thirties, things hadn't changed all that much in the south. Otto Kruger as Norris's defense attorney and Gloria Dickson as his stricken wife also giver noteworthy performances, Trevor Bardette may have had a career role as Turner's father. He's a frightening man filled with anger and among the small parts he really stands out.Mervyn LeRoy got some truly great performances from his players. They Won't Forget is something you won't forget.

Diana I just saw this movie on TCM.I don't recall the cause of death was ever mentioned in the film. The victim was founded battered at the bottom of the elevator shaft in the basement. A tragedy. Murdered? Perhaps not.The janitor displayed so much emotion in his exclamations of innocence. By his own admission he admits he was asleep on the job and part of that job was operating the elevator. Perhaps the victim, nervous at being alone in the building after class, saw that she was not alone by the classroom doorknob turning, ran from the room and instead of using the stairs,impulsively decided to use the elevator......but there was no one there to make sure it was on the right floor for pick-up. What do you think?

nomoons11 To start off with, If you think "To Kill a Mockingbird" was the first "you better not get in trouble in the South" films, think again. They won't Forget was 25 years before Mockingbird and just as controversial back in its day I'm willin' to bet.I went into this thinking' it would just be a 1937 murder mystery but what I got was an Anti-South melodrama. I think it hooks you in from the beginning because a very young Lana Turner appears and to say she's beautiful is an absolute understatement. She is just stunning for the little time she appears in this film. The basic premise of the film is that her character gets murdered off early on and they try and railroad one character after another into the electric chair until they find one that fits the best.You know how you know that this is just an Anti-South lesson? Sadly, you don't even know at the end who did do it. They just leave that part out. Most of the film concentrates on 1 character they think did it and go from there. The bad/fake southern accents and the lynching of the character who gets found guilty and gets his sentenced commuted to life at the end. Nowhere throughout the entire film does it point to anyone else. I mean not 1 character gets any light shed unto them on how they may be the actual killer. The character who gets convicted may have done it but you really have no clue. But that's the real point of the film. Your not suppose to know. It's all about how bad the southern judicial system is. This film concentrates solely on the "southern" angle. Kind of a North vs. South typa thing. It was just sad and way over stereotyped.The worst part is that the first person to come upon the body of the girl is a black night watchman and of course they throw him in jail and scare him to tears by tellin him he's gonna be executed if he doesn't tell a load of lies on the stand because if he doesn't, the other accused man's lawyer is gonna point the murder on him. Of course you know back then that blacks rarely got a fair shake so they play that angle up real well.I'm guessin you might be able to tell that I'm from the south..and I am...but there are much better films on the south that aren't so over the top on the subject matter. Go for To Kill a Mockingbird first. The ending is sad but you know that you'll walk away from it with a sense of not ever wanting to be like any of those characters that got him convicted. This film doesn't give you that at the end. All it says to you is.."better be glad you didn't live in the South way back when."