The Accused

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

The twist on what we now call sexual harassment lingers as the most interesting aspect of The Accused, an innocuous suspense story with some effective moments. Another lingering aftertaste is the midcentury stereotype of the female academic that's foisted on star Loretta Young -- and the viewer.

Psychology professor Young (!), guarded and old-maidish (she's even saddled with the glamourproof name Wilma Tuttle), becomes the object of the unhealthy attentions of one of her students (Douglas Dick). On the pretext of diving for abalone shells off Malibu, he spirits her off to a secluded lover's lane one night and forces himself on her. She bashes in his skull and fakes his death to look accidental.

Then she begins to attract more attention -- from Robert Cummings, a lawyer friend of the dead boy's family (he falls for her), and Wendell Corey, a dogged homicide cop. In the acting department, there's no contest; Cummings stays his usual namby-pamby self, while Corey delivers a strong, unsentimental performance, among his best.

Much of William Dieterle's direction shows a practiced hand. Especially well handled are the opening sequence of Young fleeing the crime scene, a boxing match where she suffers a flashback, and the ghoulish reconstructions of the murder by forensic pathologist Sam Jaffe.

But a glaring structural flaw keeps The Accused lukewarm. We know from the outset that Young acted in self-defense, which pretty well leeches all the suspense out of Corey's implacable pursuit; the tightening case against her packs no impact because it's safe to assume she won't be spending any time with those harpies from Caged. Consequently the film focuses more on her emergence from a cocoon of droopy skirts, a bun in her hair, sleeping pills and swooning spells into a seductive butterfly flitting into Cummings' net.

Dick, as the young narcissist, calls to mind such amoral charmers as Robert Walker in Strangers On A Train and John Dall in Rope (a film in which Dick also appeared). It's he -- not young nor Cummings -- who supplies what faint erotic spark this movie, about a sexually-based murder, dares to kindle.

"The Accused" is a pretty good movie with some good acting turns by some reliable Hollywood stars. It is not a film noir but primarily a love story with some melodramatic moments. It is also too long and could have used a heavier hand in the cutting room.

Having said all that, I was tempted to stop the DVD player as I didn't think it was my cup of tea (the action is minimal) but the story became more absorbing as it unfolded. Right off the bat, in the opening scene, we find out that Loretta Young kills one of her students while fighting off an attempted rape. The rest of the picture involves a cat-and-mouse game between her and Police Lieutenant Wendell Corey, with lawyer Bob Cummings trying to pick sides.

The picture moves along spasmodically (as I said, it's too long) to its eventual denouement but spiked with some genuinely interesting plot turns.I must say I always felt Wendell Corey was a bit of a stiff but here he shows some depth, and Bob Cummings is the opposite of his usual feckless, irresolute self. But the film is Miss Young's and her legion of fans will not be disappointed - plus, she's beautiful as always. I have to think this was released as an 'A' picture, as they hired Victor Young to write the music - it doesn't get any better than that.

This movie really is worth watching but don't go out of your way - unless you're a Loretta Young fan.

Good film noir concerning a prudish, but attractive, college prof that kills a student, during what today would be considered 'date rape.' Cummings and Corey are capable co-stars, and the lovely Young as always, is easy on the eyes.

In The Accused, Loretta Young plays a psychology professor who kills an amorous male student in self-defense, then spends the rest of the movie covering up her crime. William Dieterle does an excellent job with the familiar material, and Miss Young gives a sympathetic performance. This is one of several crime pictures that Hal Walls produced in the late forties and early fifties, many of which fall into the noir category. Most of these films concern people with conflicted or tortured sexual urges, dysfunctional families, inadequate or just barely adequate men, with the women often hysterical or scheming. At the time this must have seemed daringly modern and contemporary. Now it just seems quaint, a waystation in the breakdown of small-town American values, with the action taking place in a netherworld between Andy Hardy and Tennessee Williams.

The movie is surprisingly sympathetic toward Miss Young, who, though on the cusp of middle age, still looks pretty damn beautiful. Robert Cummings is stronger than usual as her "suitor", while Wendell Corey is his inscrutably poker-faced self, as always, hinting between the lines, that had his character been better written he'd be more than up to the task. If this was so, I believe him. In a smaller role, Sam Jaffe is positively mephistopholean, delivering his lines as tartly as Corey, and in his lab scenes photographed to resemble a Dwight Frye hunchback from the thirties. A nice touch. The Accused is filled with nice touches, as Dieterle and most of his cast are much better than the script, breathing real life into it at times, which makes watching the movie a pleasure. There are no real surprises here, but lots of good scenes.