I, Jane Doe (1948)

A woman (Vera Ralston) kills the lover (John Carroll) who betrayed her. But when she is put on trial for his murder, her lawyer is the wife (Ruth Hussey) of the man she killed. Directed by John H. Auer (CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS), this soap opera gives an unusual spin in that there's a kind of feminist angle about it or as much as a 1948 film can be feminist. It's also unusual that it is the murder victim who is, in a sense, put on trial as well for it was his very own unscrupulous actions that precipitated his own murder. We can agree for instance that a rape victim's sexual history is irrelevant when prosecuting her rapist but is a murder victim's history also irrelevant when his killer is on trial? I don't mean to make it sound more important than it is because it's really no more than a melodramatic potboiler but it has ideas that question the black and white morality of the legal system. It's a slippery slope. A B movie from Republic pictures but an interesting one. With Gene Lockhart, Adele Mara, John Howard, John Litel and Benay Venuta.