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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

The Murderer Is Not Guilty

1946 film by René Delacroix

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ19885452 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Murderer is Not Guilty (French: L'assassin n'est pas coupable) is a 1946 French crime film directed by René Delacroix and starring Albert Préjean, Jacqueline Gauthier and Jules Berry. A writer investigates after a number of film actors are killed.

Cast

References

Bibliography

Rège, Philippe. Encyclopedia of French Film Directors, Volume 1. Scarecrow Press, 2009.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Murderer Is Not Guilty” as 1946 film by René Delacroix. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Murderer, Guilty and film.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1946, 2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1946-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Murderer, Guilty and film providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Murderer Is Not Guilty”, the useful work is to connect “1946 film by René Delacroix” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19885452. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946 and 2009.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Murderer Is Not Guilty”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Murderer Is Not Guilty primary sources, The Murderer Is Not Guilty archive and Murderer research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Murderer Is Not Guilty”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Murderer Is Not Guilty” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.