Fingerprints Don't Lie (1951)

By CinemaSerf

When the mayor is bumped off, the local police force conclude that it must have been "Moody" (Richard Emory) because all the fingerprint evidence points to him. He, of course, protests his innocence and luckily local journalist "Evans" (Rory Mallinson) takes up the cudgels creating just enough doubt in the forensic expert's mind to have him think twice. "Stover" (Richard Travis) has every faith in his science but gradually, working with "Carolyn" (Sheila Ryan) - the daughter of the murdered man - he is faced with the prospect that there has been some manipulation going on. Back to square one? Who is the real culprit? This is a perfectly watchable crime drama that tries to develop the role of new technology in policing, and one that also points out that the infallible is rarely that. It can't have had much of a budget, so neither the acting nor the writing is particularly noteworthy, and I found the ending to be just a little too convenient, but it passes an hour effortlessly enough.