review for Circumstantial Evidence on AllMovie

Circumstantial Evidence has survived as one of the best-crafted and most entertaining whodunits of its era, a cleverly written and well-acted example of low-budget movie making. Usually cast in comedic roles, Chick Chandler makes a surprisingly fine and stalwart leading man, and ArthurVinton is splendid as the duplicitous gossip columnist with a couple of dark secrets (literally) hiding in his closet. The plot stretches credulity at times but Circumstantial Evidence is not social realism and such farfetched ideas as burning down your own mansion to prove a point is commensurate with the goings-on in most pulp fiction. Not surprisingly, director Charles Lamont soon escaped poverty row in favor of major studio Universal, where he went on to craft a series of still popular comedies featuring the likes of Abbott and Costello and Francis, the Talking Mule.