... in that it examines what can happen when a decent man finds himself cornered by an awful person. In this case, however, the "awful person" is the protagonist's wife! It is 1902 England, and Philip Marshall (Charles Laughton) is the manager of a successful tobacco shop. You see his decency right off the bat. He calls into account a messenger boy whose accounts are missing a penny here and there. He lectures the boy about how these things start out small and grow unmanageable, but ultimately lets the child off the hook with a warning it must never happen again. This is a bit of foreshadowing for Philip's character.
At home you can see that Philip's wife, Cora, probably has her picture next to the word "shrew" in the dictionary, even alienating their grown son. But remember it is virtually impossible to get a contested divorce in Edwardian England.
And this is where one thing begins to lead to another. Philip meets a young woman, Mary (Ella Raines), they strike up a friendship that is becoming more than that, but Philip's wife Cora would feel her life incomplete if not torturing some man, so she refuses to divorce him. Then Cora tells Philip she has found out what is going on and plans to announce it to everybody the next day. In Edwardian England both Philip and Mary would be fired and unemployable from that point. Funny how Cora doesn't wonder how she'll make out with Philip impoverished. But I digress.
Thus Philip must murder Cora and make it look like an accident to keep her quiet. You don't see what happened, but Cora is dead, and it looks like Philip is in the clear. Unfortunately Philip is saddled with the Scotland Yard version of Columbo. And so the friendship turned to romance leads to murder, which leads to Philip becoming a suspect, which leads to him having to resort to other crimes to keep his original crime from being found out.
This somewhat reminds me of "Scarlet Street" of the following year, except Laughton's character is actually less imperfect than Edward G. Robinson's character, and their situations lead them down different paths. And although Laughton does cross a line that most of us would find unthinkable, it is his decency that is his undoing in the end. Highly recommended.
At home you can see that Philip's wife, Cora, probably has her picture next to the word "shrew" in the dictionary, even alienating their grown son. But remember it is virtually impossible to get a contested divorce in Edwardian England.
And this is where one thing begins to lead to another. Philip meets a young woman, Mary (Ella Raines), they strike up a friendship that is becoming more than that, but Philip's wife Cora would feel her life incomplete if not torturing some man, so she refuses to divorce him. Then Cora tells Philip she has found out what is going on and plans to announce it to everybody the next day. In Edwardian England both Philip and Mary would be fired and unemployable from that point. Funny how Cora doesn't wonder how she'll make out with Philip impoverished. But I digress.
Thus Philip must murder Cora and make it look like an accident to keep her quiet. You don't see what happened, but Cora is dead, and it looks like Philip is in the clear. Unfortunately Philip is saddled with the Scotland Yard version of Columbo. And so the friendship turned to romance leads to murder, which leads to Philip becoming a suspect, which leads to him having to resort to other crimes to keep his original crime from being found out.
This somewhat reminds me of "Scarlet Street" of the following year, except Laughton's character is actually less imperfect than Edward G. Robinson's character, and their situations lead them down different paths. And although Laughton does cross a line that most of us would find unthinkable, it is his decency that is his undoing in the end. Highly recommended.