Trial and Error (1962 film)
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Trial and Error is a 1962 black-and-white British movie starring Peter Sellers, directed by James Hill and based on the play The Dock Brief written by John Mortimer.
The plot concerns a cynical and unsuccessful barrister, Wilfred Morgenhall, a character not unlike Mortimer's more famous creation, Horace Rumpole. After 40 years of undistinguished practice, he is overjoyed to be assigned a 'dock brief' to defend a accused murderer.
His client is Herbert Fowle (Richard Attenborough) a meek man who wants to plead guilty to murdering his wife. Through a series of courtroom scenes and flashbacks, the lead-up to the crime unfolds, involving Fowle taking in a lodger (David Lodge), who takes a shine to his wife (Beryl Reid)
Morgenhall is determined to be for the first time a courtroom star and insists of pleading his client as not guilty. But the case does not go smoothly and his makes a mess of his pleadings. Fowle is found guilty.
As Morgenhall drowns his sorrows in a pub, he learns that the Home Office has overruled the verdict and declared Fowle not guilty, on the basis that his defence was defective.
The film was released in the USA under the title The Dock Brief.
