An unhappy husband has an affair with a young woman, but what will he do when his wife finds out?
Simple tale of greed and murder that fails to plumb the depths. At first I thought there was a clever misdirection on who would turn out to be the villain, but no - this just coasts along in an understated way, with little intrigue or complexity. There is one suspenseful scene involving a cat, but that's about it.
Other reviewers praise the restraint of the director in the murder scenes, and I'm fine with that, but what seemed to leave room for ambiguity turned out to be nothing more than self-censorship. In fact the second scene was a little confusing, leaving unintended doubt as to whether the victim was dead.
Laughton gives a good performance, but even he couldn't provide a flash of insight into this character. As for the other actors, there really wasn't much for anyone to work with. It's a shortish run time and quite underwhelming. Only thing to praise is the sets.
Overall: Sober and forgettable melodrama.
Simple tale of greed and murder that fails to plumb the depths. At first I thought there was a clever misdirection on who would turn out to be the villain, but no - this just coasts along in an understated way, with little intrigue or complexity. There is one suspenseful scene involving a cat, but that's about it.
Other reviewers praise the restraint of the director in the murder scenes, and I'm fine with that, but what seemed to leave room for ambiguity turned out to be nothing more than self-censorship. In fact the second scene was a little confusing, leaving unintended doubt as to whether the victim was dead.
Laughton gives a good performance, but even he couldn't provide a flash of insight into this character. As for the other actors, there really wasn't much for anyone to work with. It's a shortish run time and quite underwhelming. Only thing to praise is the sets.
Overall: Sober and forgettable melodrama.