As a play, the best thing about Inadmissible Evidence was Nicol Williamson, who brought to life the tormented, mediocre, bullying coward that John Osborne had conceived on paper. Same holds true for the screen version in which same actor appears. There is value and insight to the film. Yet much of it is opaque and confusing.
Evidence remains primarily a play. It is Osborne talking about a certain stage of civilization and various kinds of people it produces.
Williamson, as the lawyer who has achieved a certain measure of material success, is flagrantly promiscuous, professionally mediocre and personally a boor.
Williamson achieves the feat of making a big man look fragile, of gaining sympathy for boorish behavior and pitying insights of a coward and scoundrel.
Picture is in black-and-white and it adds to the bleakness of the portrait being presented. Yet the same effect could have been achieved had film been done in color.
