I love this movie so much

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

An unhappy husband has an affair with a young woman, but what will he do when his wife finds out? Simple tale of greed and murder that fails to plumb the depths. At first I thought there was a clever misdirection on who would turn out to be the villain, but no - this just coasts along in an understated way, with little intrigue or complexity. There is one suspenseful scene involving a cat, but that's about it.Other reviewers praise the restraint of the director in the murder scenes, and I'm fine with that, but what seemed to leave room for ambiguity turned out to be nothing more than self-censorship. In fact the second scene was a little confusing, leaving unintended doubt as to whether the victim was dead.Laughton gives a good performance, but even he couldn't provide a flash of insight into this character. As for the other actors, there really wasn't much for anyone to work with. It's a shortish run time and quite underwhelming. Only thing to praise is the sets.Overall: Sober and forgettable melodrama.

....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.

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 when hope then springs from an unlikely source. The moral shadings here are most intricate, Laughton's Philip Marshal is a completely sympathetic and fascinating character, the makers deftly toying 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 because Siodmak has a keen eye for suspense and 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 it 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

And it was a very good try, too. It had many of the elements of a Hitchcock movie that make them so enjoyable. Plus, this one starred Charles Laughton, one of the best, although I can't picture him working for Hitchcock. I would think there would be the inevitable clash of personalities which would prevent such a matchup."The Suspect" is about a milquetoast married to a shrewish wife who hounds him until decides to take drastic measures. In the meantime, he meets Ella Raines. She is unemployed, he is smitten. (Put two and two together here). The milquetoast is played to perfection by Laughton, and his wife is played in the same manner by Rosalind Ivan.Now comes an UnHitchcock-like development in the person of the Scotland Yard detective, played with an extremely heavy hand by Stanley Ridges. After introducing himself to Laughton, he immediately reenacts a supposed murder scene without even taking off his coat. He continues his seemingly unmotivated investigation for the rest of the picture, culminating in a completely far-fetched and disappointing ending. That said, the picture is completely absorbing, made even more so by Laughton and by a terrific job in support by Henry Daniell, Laughton's alcoholic neighbor. I just think a better ending would have helped this movie to an even better final rating.