Watch The Suspect For Free

Expected more

Admirable film.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

He is married and stuck for life with a monster when he meets the ideal candidate for a life's companion. It's a thriller of great suspense, and your sympathies are with Laughton all the way as he is pestered by a nosy inspector and the worst possible immediate neighbour, who manhandles his wife and blackmails him. The conclusion is devastating and leaves you with a permanent impression of the deepest sadness and pity. At the same time, it leaves you mercifully hanging in the air.Objections could be made to some turns of the tale. The inspector is a bit too sharp for credibility, and Laughton is a bit too fast in his sudden decisions, but that's the flaw of Mr. Marshall's character. Nevertheless, the actors are all perfect, especially the women, and it is beautifully filmed. A perfect film to get upset by for the shortcomings of human nature.

When I give a movie a 10 rating, it's because the film is so good I would watch it again and The Suspect is one of those films that never lets me down. This is a very well turned out period melodrama, and the strength is in the performances. There are not many stories where you feel sympathy for the murderer, as you do for Charles Laughton's portrayal of the humble, henpecked husband. Laughton's performance is fascinating to watch, pure genius. Rosalind Ivans is perfect as his forever spiteful nagging wife. Ella Raines is delightfully lovely as the decent girl Laughton falls in love with. Henry Daniels is perfectly cast as the blackmailing neighbour, who ultimately seals Laughton's fate. The ending of this story is both very compelling and touching for the moral character Laughton plays. I will not give a synopsis for this top notch, underrated suspenseful film, as I encourage the reader to watch for themselves and be thoroughly entertained.

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.

The one great "crime passionale" of British murder cases is the 1910 murder of Cora "Belle Elmore" Crippen, wife of the American born "Dr." Hawley Harvey "Peter" Crippen. The couple had been married from the early 1890s, and moved from the United States to England, settling in London. Crippen was the possessor of a degree from a small medical college in the midwest, but he really was on shaky ground as a physician under British standards (or the standards of a major American city for that matter). In fact, he was a seller of patent medicines, and practiced some opthalmology and dentistry under questionable auspices. But he was a good businessman, and made a comfortable living. Cora had pretensions of being an opera singer, and trained her voice. She did have some performances at various music halls, but her career was mediocre at best. She also treated the long suffering, mild Crippen as dirt, making him clean up her lover's shoes when they slept over at their home. Crippen hired a secretary, Ethel Le Neve, and they fell in love. In January 1910 Belle disappeared. Her friends became concerned, and Crippen told them she had left him. Later he told them that she died in Los Angelas. But when Le Neve was seen wearing her jewelry they became suspicious. Contacting Scotland Yard about their suspicions, the Yard sent Inspector Walter Dew to see what was going on. At first Crippen seemed plausible, but then he and Le Neve fled. The remains of Belle were found in the basement. She had been poisoned. Crippen and Le Neve (disguised as his son) fled by ocean liner to Canada, followed by Dew, who arrested them off Quebec. They were taken back to England, where both were tried. The Doctor partly tied up his defense by insisting on protecting Le Neve. As a result he was found guilty and she was acquitted. The Doctor was hanged in November 1910.A movie was made, with Donald Pleasance as Crippen, and there have been films based on the story such as WE ARE NOT ALONE with Paul Muni. But this film with Charles Laughton is considered the best. Laughton captures the basic decency of the central figure, who made a bad marriage to a shrew, and fell for a decent woman too late. There are differences in the story. Rosalind Ivan (playing the "Belle" character) is not poisoned (like Flora Robson in the Muni film) but dies in an apparent accident falling downstairs. Laughton has a son who one suspects will marry the Le Neve figure after the film ends. And Laughton never even gets to see Canada, but gives himself up in England to save a neighbor suspected of killing her husband (a blackmailer Laughton has killed - another plot innovation not involved in the actual crime). But the film moves well, and one constantly feels for Laughton's character. Finally the fine Stanley Ridges gives a typically good performance as the counterpart of Inspector Walter Dew, who ended up sympathizing with the man whom he captured.