The Tattered Dress

After a wild night, wealthy Michael Reston's adulterous wife Charleen (Elaine Stewart) comes home with her ripe young body barely concealed by a dress in rags; she claims being sexually assaulted and Reston kills the man. Top defense lawyer James Blane (Jeff Chandler), whose own marriage to Diane (Jeanne Crain) exists in name only, arrives in Desert View, Nevada to take Reston’s case and finds out the townsfolk and politically powerful murderous Sheriff Nick Hoak (Jack Carson) are distinctly hostile to the Restons. While there Blane makes the acquaintance of Sheriff Hoak who’s a local celebrity himself. However Blane is a real celebrity and Hoak fawns all over him and gives him a confidence that, when the trial comes, Blane uses to impeach Hoak’s testimony and make him a figure of ridicule on the stand. Because of that Reston gets acquitted. Sheriff Hoak exacts his revenge by framing Blane on a jury tampering charge. In due course, Blane discovers that quiet desert communities can be deadly.