A lot of fun.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Intolerable Overacting from Charles Laughton makes this one Unbearable. All of the Nuance is Gone and what remains is just too much to take on the Big Screen. It's a Wonder Laughton managed another Role after this bit of Excessive Scene Stealing .It's actually more than Scene Stealing it's Show Stealing. Even for 1932 and many Stage Actors making the Transition to Film, this was a Performance that's Inexcusable. Ray Milland Shows up in an Early Role and Notice how Laughton Bullies Him from word one. He Verbally Assaults Him Beyond the Pale.Maureen O' Sullivan does manage to Get a Word in Once and While and Her Change of Character is a Temporary Diversion from the Bull-Like Laughton. The Wife and the French Floozy are OK but nothing can really Stop the Juggernaut that is Charles Laughton.Overall, so Stagy and Dated, so Over the Top and Ripe that the Entertainment Value is Lost, except the Clever Twist Ending. But Enduring this is almost Impossible to get to that One Surprise.

Charles Laughton starts chewing the curtains almost immediately in this grisly tale of greed and murder. Sir Charles had yet to tone down his film performances that would calibrate into some of the finest ever on screen and with Payment Deferred he's strictly a bull in a china shop.Bank clerk William Marble faces ruin with his family when a suddenly long lost nephew (Ray Milland) appears on his doorstep. Imploring him for a loan Marble is rebuffed and resorts to killing him. In a wild reversal of fortune he goes from ruin to riches but remains tortured and ultimately a victim of his own success which leads to his destruction.Lothar Mendes direction is stilted and it's clear he has no handle on Laughton who lurches erratically throughout, his inflection a work in progress. Maureen O'Sullivan and Verea Teasdale also seem to have caught what Laughton has, especially in the case of Teasedale's outrageously accented French seductress. Dorothy Peterson as Marble's suffering wife is both tragic and serene in the films only impressive performance.Mendes does supply some flashes of Hitchcock editing but for the most part the pace remains obvious and stilted; interspersed with glimmers of brilliance from Laughton followed by scene killing eruptions.

Make no mistake, this one belongs to Charles Laughton. Bringing this role from the stage, his movements and facial expressions are over exaggerated and hammy by later standards. But he was a monumental talent.The movie is a taut, well constructed murder mystery, with Laughton as a man who almost gets away with murder and an illicit affair. Almost. His wife (Dorothy Peterson, no mean actress in her own right) discovers both, and extracts her revenge in a marvelously twisted plot device, which almost, but not quite, pushes the boundaries of believability.Veree Teasdale as the paramour who turns to blackmail is fine.An early appearance by Ray Milland (billed as Raymond Milland) is credible, as the rich Australian nephew, who shows up at the wrong time (for him).Have a watch.

Charles Laughton is at his twitchy best in this early film, reprising his stage role as the bank clerk who has fallen on hard times. Unexpected money turns up in the person of Ray Milland, a long lost nephew. Milland is unwilling to lend or invest his funds with Laughton and with the help of a little arsenic, murder ensues. The remainder of the film revolves around the question as to whether Laughton will be caught out or not. The title provides the answer, as he pays but not for Milland's death.Laughton pulls out all the stops as the unstable clerk and his acting is very eccentric but interesting. Dorothy Peterson is his put-upon wife and she is not called upon to do much except grovel and submit to Laughton's petulance and fits of rage. A very young Maureen O'Sullivan is pert and pretty as the daughter and the wonderful character actress Veree Teasdale is a treat as the phony French blackmailer who spins a web around Laughton.The film has a stage bound look for obvious reasons with the majority of the scenes taking place in the house. The prologue, in which the landlord (Billy Bevan without his signature mustache) is showing the house to a prospective buyer (busy English actor Halliwell Hobbes), is a clever lead-in to the main action. Bevan's story of the how,who and why of the murder illustrates that not all is what it appears.Although dated, this film is very well worth seeing for a look at an early Laughton effort, although his acting style remained pretty much the same throughout his career........edgy, a bit hammy, but thoroughly enjoyable.