It seems like something Hitchcock might do, in that what the wrongdoer did from the start is known, and it is also somewhat like a film noir in that you can see how the main character might have spent his entire life as a law abiding citizen had he not become desperate.
Often seen on Turner Classic Movies in the past, since MGM had the rights to it, it hasn't been shown for over four years. It is about a bank teller, William Marble (Charles Laughton), whose family bills have mounted to the point that the bank tells him if he does not settle his accounts they will fire him. (That will fix things!...for the bank). A family meeting over the matter shows that although the Marbles live simply there were some discretionary expenses.
Then one night in the midst of this crisis a long forgotten nephew, James Medland (Ray Milland) from Australia, shows up. Marble's wife and daughter retire for the evening, and when Marble sees that his nephew is carrying considerable cash, he pitches his idea of betting on the French franc, since he knows about a plan to manipulate the currency. Medland flatly refuses and wants to leave, but Marble tries to make it up with him by having a drink with him. This is where those camera supplies that Marble bought come in handy. They include cyanide.
You don't actually SEE what happens, but by Laughton's mannerisms, off hand remarks, and his preoccupation with the backyard you know he killed the nephew, buried him in the backyard, and took his cash. Marble goes and makes his currency trades and ends up with thirty thousand pounds, enough for his family to live on for the rest of their lives. Or until inflation kicks in but that's another story.
But Marble really isn't free. He's just traded off one set of troubles for another. His wife wants to move to a different house. Theirs is rather shabby. But he refuses. It becomes the source of some tension between them, but there he is - the rich man tethered to the grave of his unwilling benefactor for the rest of his life or else it is the gallows. And Winnie, his daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan), becomes a partying snob and back talker. He sends his wife and daughter on a vacation without him so maybe his nerves will heal. And up like a snake pops a neighborhood shopkeeper and he has an affair, but all she really wants is to blackmail him, threatening to tell his wife. And then the notices appear in the paper asking people if they have seen James Medland, because his family has heard nothing and he has disappeared.
How does this all turn out?Watch and find out the great ironic ending. One matter of interest - three members of the cast were reunited 16 years later in Paramount's "The Big Clock" - Laughton, Milland, and O'Sullivan. Laughton had reached legend status by this time, but fortunes had really turned for Ray Milland, who is the main character in that film versus spending the vast majority of this film pushing up daisies, literally speaking.
