mark.waltz In 1932, Charles Laughton appeared in a thriller called "Payment Deferred" where he is a suspect in the murder of his wife over his feelings towards a much younger woman. The wife in that film was soft spoken and gentle compared to the shew here, played with hateful bitterness by Rosalind Ivan to the 100th degree of hamminess. Laughton is soft spoken and gentle, but the moment their son leaves the house (to an abundance of cackling happiness by the unforgiving Ivan), Laughton moves into the now empty bedroom, simply responding to his wife's demands to know why that the answer might frighten her. At his office, Laughton shows compassion to a young boy runner who has been pinching coin for sweet treats and a young woman (Ella Raines) who is despondent over her personal situation. But even a milquetoast like Laughton has his breaking point, and if there's ever been a wife who has crossed a line, it's the miserable Ivan. The light in Laughton's eyes comes back as he spends time with Raines, ignoring his unhappy home life. The demise of Ivan is played out subtly (offscreen) yet giving doubt to the audience whether Laughton was responsible or not. The truth is up to Scotland Yard detective Stanley Ridges, as shrewd as Ivan the Terrible was shrewish. Considering that Edward G. Robinson got the Ivan treatment in "Scarlet Street" right afterwards, I'm surprised that the British stage vet didn't pin a clause with her agent for no more harpy wives. The 1902 London atmosphere is beautifully captured, most subtly without the excessive cockney accents and overabundance of eccentrics. As directed by Robert Siodmark, this is a rare period film noir with a touch of Gothic thriller as well. The details into every major character is perfectly laid out, with small little hints even in Ivan who is hypocritically moral in denying her own failures with her marriage to Laughton. Only a few well filmed scenes of fog add onto that cliché. This is one of the superb unsung classics that deserves to be regarded as a near masterpiece.

hwg1957-102-265704 ....so says Cora Marshall (Rosalind Ivan) to her husband Philip (Charles Laughton) as she bewails the bickering state of their marriage. He happens to meet Mary (Ella Raines) and they begin a relationship which Cora finds out about and threatens Philip and Mary. Soon Cora is dead and the tension starts racking up until the last tense scenes. Is Philip a crooked tree or not? It is a good film, not particularly original, but engrossing.Set in Hollywood's London where the fog billows around it looks good and Frank Skinner's musical score swirls around nicely too. Director Robert Siodmak knows how to make this kind of film. ('The Killers' of 1946 is his masterpiece) very well and this is no exception.Laughton is excellent in his role as a kindly man caught up in a bad marriage who meets a younger woman and he holds one's sympathy right to the end. He underplays the role all for the better. Rosalind Ivan as his wife is wonderfully acid and Henry Daniell (Mr Simmons) is good too as a drunk who hits his wife, a rather pathetic but deeply selfish man. Molly Lamont who plays Daniell's wife also shines.Well worth watching.

bkoganbing I finally got to see The Suspect one of the few Charles Laughton films I had not yet seen. I was totally bowled over by what he did in this film. It's really what film acting is all about, every breath, every nuance, every gesture is carefully delineated and brought to the screen. Laughton had a reputation for driving some of his directors a little nuts with his perfectionism and maybe he did to Robert Siodmark here. I prefer to think the two of them collaborated on a masterpiece.The setting is Edwardian London in 1902. From outward appearances Laughton is a happy man, making a good living with a wife and a grown son. But he is married to one shrew of a woman he's put up with for over 20 years. He's ripe for a midlife crisis and ripe to stray. But a friendship he develops with pretty young Ella Raines recently hired at Laughton's office drives wife Rosalind Ivan up a wall. Later on Ivan dies as a result of a fall down the house stairs. Nobody can prove one way or the other whether it was murder. Scotland Yard's Stanley Ridges is up a wall with it.Laughton and Ivan have a couple of neighbors, married couple Henry Daniell and Molly Lamont. When Ridges confides in Daniell during the course of the investigation, he inadvertently sets the stage for tragedy. Daniell himself says he's a 'total rotter' and proves it the audience's satisfaction. The Suspect is one of many films based on the famous Dr. Crippen murder which was also in the same period. The only fault with the film is that the rest of the cast is fairly one dimensional in their characters next to Charles Laughton. But if you are a Laughton fan, this film is an absolute must.

RanchoTuVu An excellent domestic drama about a middle-aged man (Charles Laughton) who is trapped in an insufferable marriage. Laughton captures all the mannerisms of the situation, with a happy face for the neighbors masking his true torment. The story gets pushed along when he meets a younger woman (Ella Raines) and starts a relationship, which his devious wife (Rosalind Ivan) finds out about, sending him to the point of panic when she threatens him with social and financial ruin. The next door neighbor (Molly Lamont) is also trapped in an absysmal marriage to an alcoholic and abusive husband (Henry Daniell). One wonders why the writers didn't have Laughton and Lamont as the focus, as she's everything his wife isn't, instead of Raines. It would have saved the movie from becoming another police crime story. In any event, the chemistry seems to work pretty well, with Daniell and Ivan each in their own outstanding way supplying enough venom to propel the movie along, and Laughton excellent as a good man pushed into a corner.