The Suspect (1944)

Directed by Robert Siodmak; produced by Islin Auster

Philip Marshall (Charles Laughton) is the kind and decent manager of a tobacco shop in 1902 London. He is liked and respected, but his marriage to self-pitying, selfish, unfeeling Cora (Rosalind Ivan) is dead. He is content to continue it, though, for the sake of his grown son and for appearances. When he begins an innocent friendship with young Mary Gray (Ella Raines), he is revitalized. This happiness - and Mary herself – is threatened when Cora discovers the platonic relationship.

An interesting and rather genteel film noir, The Suspect is carried by Laughton, but not quite high enough to lift it above its faults. Laughton could easily play sympathetic – as he does here – or malicious, and though it is clearly implied that he is a murderer, even if it is not as clearly shown, the audience will be on his side in this movie. He portrays Marshall as a good man who tries to make work a bad marriage with a horrible person, and whose homicidal intentions even come across as altruistic.

Also of note is Ivan as Cora. Her behaviour, especially her delight in ruining lives, puts her personality beyond shrewish, and one can’t but think that all those who knew her felt relief at her demise. It is a persuasive performance on Ivan’s part, as is Henry Daniell’s as a conniving neighbour.

The problems with The Suspect come from other than its cast, and partly arise from the movie’s own gentility. It is set at the beginning of the twentieth century but, except for a horror of divorce evinced by Cora – a horror which would have been felt by many even in the 1940s – there is no necessity for the time period. (Evidently the movie’s publicity department felt likewise: Raines is depicted on the poster in contemporary attire.)

Indeed, The Suspect is not entirely convincing in placing the story in 1902. Though prosperous and, at this stage of their lives, middle-class, the Marshalls have no servants. This in an era when domestic service produced employment for a huge section of the poorer classes; even well-off working class households often boasted a servant. The behaviour of the characters doesn’t reflect the Edwardian era any more than it does later times, despite references to ‘revealing’ bathing suits and the refusal of the tobacconists to sell cigarettes to ladies.

The crimes are ironically treated. The weakness in more than a few films noir is that a police investigation looks superficial to viewers from later periods and, sometimes, comes across as amateurish even in its contemporary context. Bullets are not compared to the firearms that fired them, injuries are dismissed as accidental when they patently may be homicidal, etc. Here, the problem is the reverse. The intelligent Inspector Huxley (Stanley C Ridges) investigates Cora’s death seemingly on a hunch. A fall down a flight of stairs known to be damaged is questioned, as is the demise of an habitual drunk, whose body is found in a canal. If there is one death that might have been glossed over as accidental, it is that; yet the implication is that an autopsy was performed. The fact is that Marshall seems cornered more by the writers than by the evidence.

Beyond the story, there is a problem with the direction. Siodmak, a masterful director who helped create one of the most famous films noir in The Killers, and helmed other high-quality movies such as The Phantom Lady, The Spiral Staircase and Cry of the City, seemingly can’t do much with The Suspect. There is little suspense, despite the title, though there are good moments, such as when a hidden body may be uncovered. But it’s as if the film’s direction followed the mood of the quiet, suburban setting, and found it rather comforting.

Despite first-rate work by Laughton and others, The Suspect is a very minor entry from all concerned.