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.

... 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.

The Suspect is directed by Robert Siodmak and adapted to screenplay by Bertram Millhauser and Arthur T. Horman from the novel "This Way Out" written by James Ronald. It stars Charles Laughton, Ella Raines, Dean Harens, Stanley Ridges, Henry Daniell and Rosalind Ivan. Music is by Frank Skinner and cinematography by Paul Ivano.

In 1902 Edwardian London, unhappily married shopkeeper Philip Marshall (Laughton) meets beautiful Mary Gray (Raines) and a tender friendship begins to form. But once Philip's wife discovers what is going on she threatens him with exposure and scandal, forcing Philip to take drastic action...

How delightfully off, that a film that features a wife murderer, an alcoholic wife beater, and blackmail, should be so restrained and actually beautiful. The Suspect in principal is about a decent man pushed to do bad things by his awful life, a man who then finds hope springs from a most unlikely source. The moral shadings here are most intricate, Laughton's Philip Marshal is a completely sympathetic and fascinating character, and so the makers deftly toy with our perceptions in the process.

There's no mystery element to drive the story forward, we are only really left wondering how the finale will play out. However, the lack of mystery is not a problem, for the astute and wily Siodmak has a keen eye for suspense and he knows how to use gaslight interiors and foggy streets to represent the psychological turmoil of Philip and his life that's now drastically changing. Murder as justifiable homicide? Ridding the world of bad people is OK? Rest assured that this is far darker than it appears on the surface.

Brilliantly performed by Laughton and Raines, and mounted with great atmospheric skill by Siodmak, The Suspect is a little seen gem waiting to be found by a wider audience. 8/10