Thou Shalt Not Kill
Cast & Crew
John H. Auer
Charles Bickford
Owen Davis Jr.
Doris Day
Paul Guilfoyle
Granville Bates
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Reverend Chris Saunders takes an interest in Allen Stevens, a young man who has moved with his mother from the city to her small home town. Allen has been ostracized by the townspeople for his seemingly arrogant manner and his friendship with another "outsider," Julie Mancini, a waitress whom the citizens suspect has questionable morals. Allen becomes enamoured of Mary Olson, a wholesome girl from one of the town's best families, and Chris counsels him to mend his ways in order to win the approval of her stern father Lars. Allen is embittered by Lars's narrow-minded rejection of him, but nonetheless gives in when Chris asks him to donate blood to save Mrs. Olson after her appendix ruptures. The townspeople treat Allen more kindly after he saves Mrs. Olson's life, but Chris urges him to end his association with Julie, and loans Allen his car to drive to the lakeside resort where she works. Allen sees Julie and all appears well until the next morning, when police arrive at Chris's church and reveal that Julie was murdered the previous night. She was hit with Chris's umbrella, which was found in her rowboat, before falling into the lake and drowning. The umbrella had been in Chris's car, and so Allen is arrested for the murder. During the trial, Allen maintains that Julie had welcomed their breakup and had said she was going to marry someone else. He testifies that he helped her to the boat and gave her the umbrella, but had nothing to do with her death. The district attorney paints a different picture, however, saying that Allen callously killed Julie to be free to pursue Mary. One afternoon, Chris is driving home from the courtroom when he is driven off the road by a speeding motorist. The other car then goes off the road, and Chris tends to the injured driver, Gordon Mavis. Chris takes Mavis to the hospital, where Mavis, who believes he is going to die, begs Chris to hear his confession. Chris protests that only a priest can hear confessions but, moved by the young man's insistence, listens. Mavis confesses that he killed Julie in a fit of rage when she demanded that he marry her. When Mavis later recovers, he refuses to turn himself into the police, despite Chris's urgings. Father O'Reilly counsels Chris that he cannot break the sanctity of the confession, no matter what his religion, and Chris watches helplessly as Allen is convicted and sentenced to die. Mavis finally agrees to turn himself in and asks Chris to take him to his boathouse to collect his things. Once at the boathouse, however, Mavis knocks Chris unconscious and sets the building on fire. Chris manages to escape the blaze and calls to Mavis while he is questioned by Doc Holmes. Believing Chris to be dead, Mavis is driven to hysterics by his voice and confesses his culpability for the fire and Julie's death. Later, Allen is released and exchanges loving glances with Mary as she sings in Chris's church choir.
Director
John H. Auer
Cast
Charles Bickford
Owen Davis Jr.
Doris Day
Paul Guilfoyle
Granville Bates
Charles Waldron
Sheila Bromley
George Chandler
Charles Middleton
Emmett Vogan
Leona Roberts
Ethel May Halls
Edmund Elton
Elsie Prescott
Crew
George Blair
George Carleton Brown
Cy Feuer
John Victor Mackay
Jack Marta
Ernest Nims
Robert North
Adele Palmer
Robert Presnell
Murray Seldeen
Al Wilson
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The pre-release titles of this film were The Narrow Path and Woman Who Dared.
