AllMovie

Back when he died in 1900, William Marsh Rice was a Texas gazillionaire, having donated the funds to start the Rice Instittute (later known as Rice University) in Houston. In this movie, based on the director's stage play, when a suspicious will turns up on the occasion of Rice's death, the Texas Secretary of State (Sam Bottoms) investigates it. It soon appears evident that the chief beneficiary and the rich man's butler conspired to make up a false will prior to the butler poisoning the old man. In the sensational trial which resulted, expert testimony about handwriting was accepted in court for the first time.