The Woman Accused

The Woman Accused (1933)

*** (out of 4)

Glenda O'Brien (Nancy Carroll) is about to happily marry Jeffrey Baxter (Cary Grant) but before doing so an old flame calls her. At first she doesn't want to even go to his room but she's forced there and before long the man is threatening to have Jeffrey murdered. To prevent that from happening Glenda hits him over the head and it kills him. Glenda and Jeffrey go on a cruise to get away from it but it haunts her and matters aren't helped when Stephen Bessemer (John Halliday) begins asking questions.

THE WOMAN ACCUSED is a rather interesting little drama that works in large part to the three lead performances. Fans of this era's motion pictures will certainly want to check this one out thanks to the trio of acting talents but it's also very much worth watching for a number of other reasons.

For the most part it has a rather interesting story and also a rather interesting way of getting played out. On the cruise ship Glenda is pretty much stalked and harassed by Stephen who does several (probably) illegal things to try and get a confession out of her. This leads to a very bizarre mock trial where the woman eventually cracks. The film also contains some very memorable moments towards the end of the picture including a certain beat down that I won't spoil but man, it has to be seen to be believed!

As I said, the acting is the real stand out here with Carroll doing a nice job in her leading role. She basically has to play a frightened woman throughout the picture but I thought she was very believable in regards to the fear she shows. I also thought her scene with the former lover was very well played. Grant also gets a chance to act here. Most of his parts up to this one were just him looking pretty but this one here allowed him to show some dramatic range. Halliday is also extremely good as the menacing man who wants that confession.

There are certainly some flaws throughout the picture and there's no question that it's not a masterpiece but fans of this era should enjoy it.

When I started watching this movie I didn't expect anything extraordinary of it and it didn't disappoint me one bit. This is a story of a young woman whose previous love interest comes back into town and wants to regain his possession of her although it is too late as she is almost engaged but this man doesn't take "no" for an answer so she chooses the only possible way out of this mess. Nancy Carroll plays her heart out in this picture and shows a great variety of emotions through and through. Young Cary Grant here is absolutely fabulous too and I don't believe I have ever seen him in a similar role (and I had watched about 60 of his movies). The whole movie doesn't belong to any specific genre being more of a mixture between a detective story, drama, romance and a little comedy and it shines in every one of them. People will always ask: how far will you go down the despicable road in the name of love? I'd say - far enough, if you're pure in heart and soul about a person you're going this road for.

A scrappy she-didn't-mean-to-do-it in which the principals are forced to do their best to act out a somewhat foregone drama—admittedly with a few clever twists here and there. By and large, Carroll, Grant and Halliday manage rather well, and it's certainly not their fault that they tend to out-stay their welcome, allowing the histrionic thunder to be stolen by the support team headed by Jack LaRue (a small part, but you'll never forget him in this one), Louis Calhern (a really nasty piece of work), Norma Mitchell (a stage actress who made only three films, of which this is the first), the effervescent Lona André ("round and round") and Irving Pichel, the smooth-talking D.A. who knows which side of a legal argument will win him the most votes.

Production credits are great, with a special nod for Sloane's silky direction and Struss' marvelously fluid, super-attractive camera-work.

For die-hard Cary Grant fans, this movie is a must-see. A bit hard to track down but well worth the effort.

The Woman Accused in this story is Glenda. What is she accused of? Murder, of course. Why? When an old flame comes back to threaten her newfound happiness with fiancee Jeffrey (Cary), and even threatens to have him killed, Glenda does the only sensible thing and kills him before he gets the chance. She then takes off on a 3-day cruise with Jeffrey, convinced that it will be the only time they'll have before she is caught.

I won't tell you the ending, you'll have to see it for yourself. It's nice to see Cary Grant when he was just starting out, especially at the boyishly good-looking age of 29.

Watch it, you won't be sorry. 8/10

For an archivist researching a documentary of early thirties America, 'The Woman Accused' abounds in rich pickings; commencing with the opening film snapshots depicting the ten popular authors who contributed the preposterous plot in the form of a round robin; and including ample footage of the dawn of the Roosevelt administration, still feeling the bruises of the Wall Street Crash, but celebrating the repeal of prohibition. Little nuggets of contemporary information we learn include the fact that in 1933 the engaged tone was known as "the busy signal", and that in those days a murder trial with all the trimmings cost $100,000.

Baby-faced Nancy Carroll is the show here, modelling a variety of figure-hugging backless gowns (and a bathing suit), with a young Cary Grant serving as the arm candy while she is pursued during a pleasure cruise by creepy John Halliday, who devises an absurdly elaborate scheme to see her arrested for killing her loathsome old flame Louis Calhern - who for some unfathomable reason Halliday genuinely seemed to care about. Halliday happily enlists the aid of a hired thug played by an even more loathsome Jack La Rue despite presumably being aware that La Rue has previously killed people on Calhern's behalf. How Grant persuades La Rue to change his testimony has to be seen to believed, like something out of a pre-WWI rather than a Pre-Code movie (I'd love to know which of the authors came up with that gem)! 

As Carroll's devoted maid Martha - literally prepared to shed her own blood on her behalf - the scary Norma Mitchell (who also wrote Broadway farces) makes a striking film debut, but made only two more minor film appearances.