Sign In / Sign Up

The Accused

The Accused
Release date: 1949-01-12
Rating: 6.063
Votes: 24
Genres: Drama, Thriller
A prim psychology professor fights to hide a murder she committed in self-defense.

Reviews

John Chard

John Chard

The Crime of Fear. The Accused is directed by William Dieterle and adapted to screenplay by Ketti Frings from the novel “Be Still, My Love” written by June Truesdell. It stars Loretta Young, Robert Cummings, Wendell Corey, Sam Jaffe and Douglas Dick. Music is by Victor Young and cinematography by Milton R. Krasner. Wilma Tuttle (Young) is a college professor who is prompted into an act of self defence when one of her students attacks her sexually. The damage done, Wilma covers up her crime and finds her conscience gnawing away at her, especially as she is actively involved in the police investigation… Good sturdy story is well played out by a good sturdy cast, The Accused makes up for what it lacks in noir visuals with noir infected psychological smarts. Helps that Wilma Tuttle is a strong characterisation in Young’s excellent hands, the whole film hinging on the fact that Wilma’s crime is perfectly understandable to us viewers, she has our sympathy, more so since she has the chance of love with Cumming’s amiable and cunning lawyer. We follow the police investigation through its various strands of science, with Wilma privy to what is going on as well. This puts a devilish kink to proceedings as Lieutenant Ted Dorgan (Corey) is pretty sure he knows what really happened (an inquest had previously ruled the death as an accident caused whilst diving). Further spice comes with the knowledge that Dorgan also has the hots for Wilma, thus this puts Wilma in a whirlpool of fear and fret, conscience battering and the amorous attentions of two male suitors, both of whom are intricately bound to the investigation. Plus she’s trying to keep it together at work whilst she’s teaching her students psychology! It all builds to a good conclusion, which is nicely open ended, to round production out as an entertaining noirish meller. 7/10

Movie Recommendation

  • Footsteps in the Fog
    Footsteps in the Fog
    1955-09-14
    A Victorian-era murder mystery about a parlour maid who discovers that her employer may have killed his first wife.
    More...
  • Society of the Snow
    Society of the Snow
    2023-12-15
    On October 13, 1972, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, chartered to take a rugby team to Chile, crashes into a glacier in the heart of the Andes.
    More...
  • Oppenheimer
    Oppenheimer
    2023-07-19
    The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
    More...
  • Titanic
    Titanic
    1997-12-18
    101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson and Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic's departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.
    More...
  • Darkman II: The Return of Durant
    Darkman II: The Return of Durant
    1995-07-11
    Darkman and Durant return and they hate each other as much as ever. This time, Durant has plans to take over the city's drug trade using high-tech weaponry. Darkman must step in and try to stop Durant once and for all.
    More...
  • The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines
    The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines
    2006-09-09
    After retrieving the Crystal Skull in Utah, Flynn Carsen receives a map in the mail with the secret location of King Solomon's Mines. When the scroll is stolen, Judson explains the power of the Key of Solomon's book and assigns Flynn to retrieve the map. The map is useless without the legend piece to decipher it, which is located in Volubilis near the Roman ruins in Morocco. Flynn heads to Casablanca to the ruins where he is chased by a group of mercenaries leaded by General Samir. They too want to find the location of King Solomon's mines. Flynn teams-up with Professor Emily Davenport working in the dig and they escape from General Samir and his men. While traveling to Gedi, they save the local Jomo from death and the trio faces a dangerous journey through the wild Africa.
    More...
  • Tenet
    Tenet
    2020-08-22
    Armed with only one word - Tenet - and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
    More...
  • Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
    Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
    1988-10-21
    Ten years after his original massacre, the invalid Michael Myers awakens on Halloween Eve and returns to Haddonfield to kill his seven-year-old niece.
    More...
  • Atlantis: Milo's Return
    Atlantis: Milo's Return
    2003-02-25
    Milo and Kida reunite with their friends to investigate strange occurances around the world that seem to have links to the secrets of Atlantis.
    More...
  • PK
    PK
    2014-12-18
    A stranger in the city asks questions no one has asked before. Known only by his initials, the man's innocent questions and childlike curiosity take him on a journey of love, laughter and letting go.
    More...
  • Joker
    Joker
    2019-10-01
    During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
    More...
  • Murder Mystery
    Murder Mystery
    2019-05-25
    On a long-awaited trip to Europe, a New York City cop and his hairdresser wife scramble to solve a baffling murder aboard a billionaire's yacht.
    More...
  • The Suicide Squad
    The Suicide Squad
    2021-07-28
    Supervillains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker and a collection of nutty cons at Belle Reve prison join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese.
    More...
  • Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
    Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
    2020-02-05
    Harley Quinn joins forces with a singer, an assassin and a police detective to help a young girl who had a hit placed on her after she stole a rare diamond from a crime lord.
    More...
  • Soul
    Soul
    2020-12-25
    Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful audition at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.
    More...
  • The Collector
    The Collector
    2009-07-09
    Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer's country home, unaware that a second criminal has also targeted the property, and rigged it with a series of deadly traps.
    More...
  • The Unholy
    The Unholy
    2021-03-31
    Alice is a young hearing-impaired girl who, after a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary, is inexplicably able to hear, speak and heal the sick. As word spreads and people from near and far flock to witness her miracles, a disgraced journalist hoping to revive his career visits the small New England town to investigate. When terrifying events begin to happen all around, he starts to question if these phenomena are the works of the Virgin Mary or something much more sinister.
    More...
  • Kung Fu Panda
    Kung Fu Panda
    2008-06-04
    Chosen by prophecy but doubted by all, Po is an unlikely Dragon Warrior—a clumsy panda thrust into the world of kung fu as a deadly enemy threatens the Valley of Peace. Guided by Master Shifu and the Furious Five, Po must embrace who he is to unlock the power that no scroll can teach.
    More...
  • The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar
    The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar
    2016-01-25
    Set in the African savannah, the film follows Kion as he assembles the members of the 'Lion Guard'. Throughout the film, the diverse team of young animals will learn how to utilize each of their unique abilities to solve problems and accomplish tasks to maintain balance within the Circle of Life, while also introducing viewers to the vast array of animals that populate the prodigious African landscape.
    More...
  • Tolkien
    Tolkien
    2019-05-03
    England, early 20th century. The future writer and philologist John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973) and three of his schoolmates create a strong bond between them as they share the same passion for literature and art, a true fellowship that strengthens as they grow up, but the outbreak of World War I threatens to shatter it.
    More...

Similar Movies