The Suspect (1944)

4K RESTORATION — Australian Premiere

“Charles Laughton gave one of his best but least-known performances in Robert Siodmak’s outstanding melodrama.” – Danny Peary

London, 1902: A tobacco shop owner, Philip (Charles Laughton), is trapped in an insufferable marriage to a shrewish wife and starts a tender, chaste relationship with a younger woman (Ella Raines). When his wife finds out and threatens to expose the ‘scandal’, Philip is forced to take drastic action. A cagey and creepy police inspector and a vicious wife-beater intent on blackmail add to the moral ambiguities of this gently rendered crime thriller from veteran Hollywood director Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross, The Killers). Laughton’s mesmerizing, subtle and nuanced performance is outstanding.  4K restoration by Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Post Laboratory.

Introduced by Nicky Hannan at Ritz Cinemas and Paul Harris at Lido Cinemas.

“If any individual has a right to ‘sign’ the film, it is Laughton in one of his most engaged and engaging roles, as a sympathetic wife-killer and a victim of blackmail, whose fatal flaw is eventually revealed to be his sense of simple decency.” – Paul Taylor, Time Out Film Guide 

“Builds towards a tremendously engaging third act that’s capped off with an almost impressively downbeat finale.” – David Nusair 

“A biting tale of three marriages, two wretched ones saved by murder and a joyous third brought down by the pesky hobgoblin, ‘a sense of decency.’” – Fernando F. Croce 

Rating

Unclassified 15+

Duration

85 min

Language

English

Cast

Charles Laughton, Ella Raines, Dean Harens

Director

Robert Siodmak