gordonl56 THE ACCUSED - 1949 Loretta Young, Bob Cummings, Wendell Corey and Sam Jaffe headline this rather dated noir.Psychology professor Young has a student who is a bit on the forward side. He is always pushing his attentions on Miss Young. Young finds this a bit on the awkward side and suggests he cool it.The young man, Douglas Dick, agrees to behave himself. After class, he offers Young a ride home after seeing she missed her bus. Young accepts but the ride goes nowhere near her place. They end up out on a secluded seaside lover's lane. There Dick becomes rather forceful with his advances. While fighting him off, Young bashes in his head with a handy iron bar. She then makes it look like an accidental death by dumping Dick off a cliff.Soon everyone seems to be knocking on her door, starting with Bob Cummings. Cumming is a lawyer who works for the dead man's family. Cummings is just checking about Dick's grades etc with his instructors. Several days later the body is fished out of the water and a coroner's inquest held.The death is ruled an accident which off course makes Young happy. Police Detective Wendell Corey is not quite so sure and decides to look deeper into the death. Young spends the rest of the picture trying to make sure she covered her tracks, as well as falling for Cummings. Cummings likewise takes a shine to Miss Young.Hanging around being a pest is Detective Corey. He slowly puts together a collection of clues that start to point at Young. Nothing solid, but lots of little clues that keep the cop digging. Helping him in this is forensic expert Sam Jaffe.To cut to the quick, Cummings also tumbles to Young being the killer. But he could care less as he is head over heels for her. Corey charges her and presents his case but knows it is going nowhere with a jury.The film is good looking, but somewhat lacking in the suspense area. The basic story has worn rather thin since 1949. Young as the bookish teacher etc. is old hat now. We know she was only defending herself which eliminates the femme fatale angle.Director William Dieterle did better work on his other film noir, ROPE OF SAND, DARK CITY and THE TURNING POINT. The film is still worth a look, but one is not likely to give it second viewing.

T Y This movie starts in an unusually interesting place. A woman is fleeing some deed, under cover of noir night. It continues to another interesting place. The woman is a psychology instructor, who in 1949 is allowed to speak intelligently & authoritatively on the topic. Then we flashback to the crime. The crime is passable. But unfortunately after that, the movie which started so interesting descends into bland convention and melodrama. Seeking the quickest route to audience identification, the movie selects "romance" as our pathway through things. It makes the movie less engaging by the minute, and really shrinks the possibilities of what it can be. The noose tightens for way too long, forcing the writers to draw out the tension and run it against the romance all the while. The weak frisson just doesn't create much engagement in a viewer. Cummings is not terribly interesting and Wendell Corey plays yet another irksome investigator.

Neil Doyle At the time of release, THE ACCUSED was probably considered a daring story for Hollywood to tackle--a teacher about to be assaulted by a student kills him rather than being subjected to rape. The prim schoolteacher is played by LORETTA YOUNG with all her virginal modesty bolstered by wearing her hair in a bun with Peter Pan collars adorning her neckline.Rather than confess to her crime, she tries to conceal it from the prying eyes of detective WENDELL COREY and lawyer friend ROBERT CUMMINGS. Both of these actors have given stronger performances in other films but apparently neither one had their interest in these roles heightened by a lackluster script.Slowly, the film tries to build suspense until a final courtroom scene, but by that time the tale has lost a lot of its credibility and the characters are so poorly etched that you won't care that much about the outcome.Young is as pretty as ever but her role has no depth and what should have been a taut exercise in suspense has been turned into a mushy romantic drama rather than a gripping film noir.

jaykay-10 Here is as "quiet" a suspense film as you are likely to encounter. That is all to the good, as beneath its placid surface crackle psychological crosscurrents that generate tension throughout. Each of the main characters is an interesting study, with ambivalent emotions that alternately spark and grate against those of the others. Additionally (and ironically), these characters are all involved in recognizing and dealing with such behavior, being a psychology professor, a detective and a lawyer respectively. A bit verbose at times, and resolved with a glib, less-than-satisfying ending, this picture nevertheless deserves a wider audience - if it has any at all nowadays. The performances are rock-solid and properly understated for the most part (even by Robert Cummings) in keeping with the conservative small town atmosphere; but there are effective contrasting performances as well, in the smaller roles of the few relatively unbalanced characters, as played by Douglas Dick, Suzanne Dalbert, and especially Sam Jaffee.