W. Lee Wilder's films are nowhere near as bad as some critical reviews, following the conventional wisdom, make them out to be. "The Woman in Brown" (1948) is a very good courtroom drama. It shows in detail how innocent people might be railroaded by false and bribed testimony, by lawyer tricks, and by lapses in evidence that will exonerate the accused. This movie is lifted by noir lighting and cinematography throughout. It has intensity and suspense, the trial outcome being in doubt.

The cast is capable. Conrad Nagle as defense attorney uses his deep voice to great advantage. Wily Philip van Zandt and sniveling Lyle Talbot are the prosecuting attorneys after Frank Ferguson resigns in disgust. Reinhold Schünzel is the greedy baron trying to buy up land under which there is oil, unknown to the sellers. Fritz Kortner is a Jewish landowner who has leased his land and doesn't want to sell. Edwin Maxwell as the judge adds to the suspense by seeming to be leaning toward the prosecution and hearing them out, but at other times standing up for a fair trial. There are several other witnesses, all of whom add interesting detail to the complex story.

This movie is also really a mystery in a number of respects, not just a dark courtroom drama. A girl has died. How? There are conflicting accounts. A body has been discovered. Is this the girl? Identification produces conflict. What actually happened in Kortner's barn? What witnesses are truthful and which are not? The story is really very good and we do not know how the many questions will be resolved.