Inquest (1939 film)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Inquest (1939 film)

Inquest is a 1939 British crime drama directed by Roy Boulting. It stars Elizabeth Allan, Herbert Lomas, Hay Petrie, and Barbara Everest, and is based on the play Inquest by Michael Barringer (which had previously been adapted for the screen in 1931). The story follows a young widow who is accused of murder and seeks help from a King’s Counsel to prove her innocence, with much of the action taking place in a coroner’s court.

The film was made as a quota quickie at Highbury Studios for Charter Film Productions and runs 60 minutes. It was released in December 1939 and distributed by Grand National Pictures. The technical team included D. P. Cooper (cinematography), Roy Boulting (editing), and Charles Brill (music).

Reception was mixed. The Monthly Film Bulletin praised its suspense, crisp dialogue, and strong performances, especially the courtroom exchanges between the coroner (Lomas) and the King’s Counsel (Petrie). Kinematograph Weekly highlighted the film’s compact, engaging crime drama largely set in the coroner’s court, calling the coroner and KC duel the standout element. David Quinlan, in British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959, rated it average as a standard courtroom mystery. TV Guide noted it as not bad for a courtroom drama and recognized it as an early effort by the Boulting brothers to raise production values in programmer filmmaking.