THE TRIAL OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD
dir. Larry Buchanan, 1964
United States. 98 min.
In English.

THURSDAY, JULY 6 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY JULY 9 - 5PM
FRIDAY, JULY 14 - 7:30pm
FRIDAY JULY 21 - 5PM

November 24, 1963: Lee Harvey Oswald, under arrest for the alleged assassination of President John F. Kennedy two days prior, is fatally shot in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters by local nightclub owner, Jack Ruby.

April 22, 1964: “Lee Harvey Oswald” stands trial in front of a jury of his peers over the alleged assassination of President John F. Kennedy. YOU are the twelfth juror.

In the months immediately following Lee Harvey Oswald’s death, Larry Buchanan put together this legal procedural speculating how Oswald’s trial over John F. Kennedy’s assassination would have played out. Ironically, given the subject matter, this is arguably the least conspiracy-tinged (or maybe most, depending on how you look at it) of Buchanan’s historical fictions, positing the same theory later confirmed by the Warren Commission report that Oswald was the sole shooter.

Coincidentally, Texas-native Buchanan had crossed paths with Jack Ruby just a few years prior, while filming the 1961 mondo nudie, NAUGHTY DALLAS, parts of which were shot at Ruby’s nightclub. According to the director, at one point Ruby had even requested to be in the picture, which Buchanan refused for no other reason than, “I hated him, so he wasn’t.”