Chain of Evidence (1957)

Directed by Paul Andres; produced by Ben Schwalb

Trucker Steve Nordstrom (James Lydon) has just been released from an ‘honour farm’ after three years, following a conviction for assault on sleazy Carl Fowler (Timothy Carey), who had insulted Nordstrom’s finacée, Harriet (Claudia Barrett). Despite Harriet having waited for him, and the cop on the case (Bill Elliott) having put in the good word that sent him to a minimum security facility, Steve is a little bitter. But he intends to work hard, so that he can buy his own truck again some day. But when Fowler ambushes him, leaving him with amnesia, Steve becomes the pawn in an insidious murder plot.

Despite Monogram Pictures changing its name to Allied Artists four years previously, Chain of Evidence shows the clear signs of coming from Hollywood’s Poverty Row. The low production values, the bland script and the largely unknown actors are trademarks of the brand. Such characteristics do not always lead to poor entertainment and, in fact, the performances of a number of the players in Chain of Evidence are quite good, Elliott, Carey and the two adulterous killers (Tina Carver, Ross Elliott), in particular.

Nonetheless, there is little on screen to raise this movie above the average crime drama. The story is predictable - even if the use of an amnesiac for a murder plot is clever - the dialogue is unexceptional, and the direction ordinary.

The casting is likely more interesting for the performers than for their performances. Jimmy Lydon was a child actor (he was the title character in the Henry Aldrich series) and had a greatly varied career but, though 34 in 1957 (he lived to be 99), seems too young and high schoolish for an experienced truck driver. This trait, along with his performance, conveys the impression of a parody of an ‘after-school special’.

Tim Carey was a strange man (to say the least) who acted in The Killing and Paths of Glory, but once staged his own kidnapping, and created and starred in what Frank Zappa (who composed its music) called “the world’s worst movie.” Dabbs Greer is perhaps the only actor from Chain of Evidence familiar today: he portrayed the local clergyman in Little House on the Prairie. He worked into his nineties. 

Bill Elliott stars as police officer Andy Doyle. Elliott was once ‘Wild Bill’ Elliott and acted in dozens of films, mostly westerns, going back to the Silent Era. (He was an extra in the original Ben-Hur.) His last five films (he was only 53 when he retired), of which Chain of Evidence was the penultimate, were low-budget crime stories. He played the same character in all but the first, in which he played the same sort of character, named Andy Flynn. In three, he was supported by Don Haggerty as his character’s partner.

All of this trivia, of course, does not add to the quality of Chain of Evidence. It remains a routine film with nothing particularly bad about it, but certainly nothing outstanding, either.