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Memorable, crazy movie

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I have to say I'll always enjoy a Charles Laughton movie, but you have to admit, pictures from the early days of film almost always laid it right out there for the viewer as if one couldn't put two and two together. In this case, the murder of young Medland (Ray Milland) - it's OK for the viewer to be in on the little secret, but gee, could it have been any more obvious to anyone in the Marble home to figure out what happened? A newly dug up back yard wouldn't have raised too much suspicion now would it? Or how about that great big old bottle of cyanide sitting on the book shelf in plain view, with books discussing the subject of poisoning by cyanide the only reading material in the house? You had to know that William Marble (Laughton) wasn't going to get away with this one, so the intrigue was in how the story would get you there. I think with a little more creativity, old Marble could probably have gone for a two-fer with Mrs. Collins (Verree Teasdale) if you know what I mean. Instead, poor Mrs. Marble (Dorothy Peterson) had to agonize her way through thoughts of extortion, adultery and suicide if her husband ever proved to be unfaithful. I was sad to see her go.Probably more unbelievable to me than the whole idea of murdering his own nephew was Marble's ability to turn the boy's wallet into a fortune of thirty thousand pounds - now there was the real mystery. In every other aspect of his life, Laughton's character seemed to be a real loser, pushing his wife around and completely unbearable to his daughter Winnie (Maureen O'Sullivan). Who would have guessed that the line of BS he gave to Medland might have made them both rich.Check this one out if you can get your hands on it; I happened to catch it on Turner Classics last night and it made for an entertaining hour and a half. There's always a good chance you'll pick up some neat trivia from one of the film hosts on Turner; like the studio being pressured to remove direct references to cyanide in case it might give ideas to potential husband/killers in the future. They certainly didn't foresee the advent of the internet a mere seventy years later, where you could learn everything you ever wanted to know to commit murder and mayhem of your very own.

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Crime & Punishment movie having to do with how justice works in strange and unusual ways in bringing the guilty to pay for their crimes. In this case William Mable, Charles Laughton, a man who got away with murder but was convicted and sent to the gallows for a murder, or really death, that he in fact didn't commit.Deep in debt and with no way out of his pressing financial problems William has his nephew from far off Australia James Medland, Ray Milland, show up at his dilapidated house, that he's behind in the rent, for a visit. Seeing that James has a wad of bills, in the hundreds of pounds, in his wallet William tries to talk him into going partners with him in the superlative British Foreign Exchange Currency Market. The overbearing William really gets under the good natured James skin who tells him to kindly get lost and stop bothering him with his both wild and cockamamie money schemes.Desperately wanting to get his hands on James cash William, in an effort to let bygones be bygones, offers him a departing drink that he secretly lased with deadly cyanide. Gulping the drink down in one shot James soon becomes history as well as part, in being buried there, of the Mable's backyard.Keeping both his wife Anne, Dorothy Peterson,and daughter Winnie, Maureen O'Sullivan, as well as the the police in the dark to James' fate it soon becomes evident that William in fact got away with murder. William got a bit lucky in the Foreign Exchange Market parlaying James stolen 100 pounds to an astonishing 30,000 in less then a month! With everything going great for him William falls victim to his next door neighbor clothing store owner Maggie Collins, Verree Teasdale, who's been eying the big oaf when she got wind that he was riding the gravy train as a result of the money he made in the market.Taking advantage of a lonely William, with his both wife and daughter away on vacation, Maggie seduced the big lug and later used the fact that he cheated on his wife Anne to blackmail him. Anne, suspecting something, who only thought that William embezzled the bank that he work at got the shock of her life when she caught William and Maggie smooching in the family living room! This while she was both sick and bedridden with pneumonia upstairs in the master bedroom!***SPOILERS*** Greatly depressed in the fact that her loyal and caring husband is cheating on her Anne took a drink of juice laced with cyanide and ended up dead the same way James, involuntarily, did. Arrested in is wife's murder William could only wait and face the music, or hangman, in a murder that he didn't commit but one that he did and got away with. In fact the strange fate of William Marble turned out to be a twisted case of poetic justice if there ever was one!

This is the kind of role that Charles Laughton was great in, but he was great in just about anything he did. Laughton plays a banker's assistant who is in debt to everyone and there is basically nothing he can do and his boss says he'll fire him because Laughton's reputation might hurt the bank. Then one night, out of the blue, comes in Ray Milland with a pocketful of money and Laughton tries to get him to make a deal about a tip he got about the stock market. Milland wants nothing to do with his plan so Laughton kills him with poison. Laughton then becomes rich and he and his family are on easy street. Laughton does eventually gets what is coming to him but for the murder of his wife which he didn't do. It's a great movie with a great performance by Laughton.

Don't let this one get away from you, an early Charles Laughton mini-masterpiece of murder and justice.A friend recommended I see this film `at any cost.' I would have blown it off because the rating at the time on the IMDB was below 6.5 (my limit for giving it a chance). What a surprise when my girlfriend and I finally got around to watching the tape we made off of TCM. This moody, atmospheric melodrama just started to pull us in. Pretty and oh so young Maureen O'Sullivan, craftsman Charles Laughton, dapper Ray Milland, seductress Verree Teasdale are just the attractive ingredients. It's the story, told slowly and deliberately that get you hooked. SPOILERS:In this adaptation of Jeffrey Dell's play, Charles Laughton recreates his stage role as a seemingly meek bank clerk. To make good his debts, Laughton ingratiates himself with his wealthy Australian nephew (Ray Milland), then poisons the lad and buries the body in his garden. Using the money the nephew had on his person, Laughton invests wisely and becomes rich himself. He rapidly goes to seed, deserting his wife (Dorothy Peterson) for a "woman of the world" (Verree Teasdale) and drinking himself into unconsciousness. Laughton's distraught wife figures out the extent of her husband's crimes, and grimly arranges for Laughton to accidentally kill her-with enough circumstantial evidence planted to convict the husband of murder. Payment Deferred was a particularly vivid experience for supporting actor Ray Milland, who watched in amazement as Charles Laughton got away with some of the ripest "ham" ever seen on film.