This article examines archival material related to L’Affaire Seznec, an unfinished project from the early 1950s by the filmmaker André Cayatte. Part fiction, part documentary, the film would have attempted to prove the innocence of a former convict, tried for murder in 1924. Several versions of the film script remain, including a final one employing innovative formal strategies that current viewers might associate more with television than cinema. Public authorities acted to prevent the film from being shot, but the project then fell victim to two other forms of “death.” First, because the censors were working through unofficial channels, they left no written evidence of their objections. Second, and perhaps more consequentially, the critics of Cahiers du cinéma attacked Cayatte’s next films, inspired by Seznec, excluding this particular film style from canons that today are still heavily influenced by the New Wave. The decisions leading to each of these disappearances had political motives, even though they may not be obvious.