Ladies of the Jury

Directed by Lowell Sherman, Ladies of the Jury follows society matron Livingston Baldwin Crane (Edna May Oliver) as she’s selected as a juror for a high-profile murder case involving an ex-chorus girl accused of killing her husband. It’s a bare-bones setup that’s employed to mostly underwhelming effect by Sherman, as the filmmaker, working from Marion Dix, Salisbury Field, and Eddie Welch’s screenplay, delivers a static endeavor that relies predominantly on Oliver’s less-than-subtle performance to propel the thin narrative forward – with the far-from-eventful atmosphere especially problematic in a first half that revolves entirely around the by-the-numbers court case itself (which essentially unfolds in real time). It’s clear, then, that Ladies of the Jury improves slightly as the action moves into the jury room, as the expected arguments and debates that subsequently unfold are slightly more compelling than one might’ve reasonably anticipated. (Even Oliver’s one-note figure becomes less annoying during this stretch, to be sure.) By the time the comparatively frenetic finale rolls around, Ladies of the Jury has confirmed its place as a ceaselessly erratic piece of work that does, for the most part, feel much longer than its 63 minutes.

** out of ****