The Accused

The Accused
1949 - Paramount
Directed By William Dieterle



SYNOPSIS

Psychology Professor Wilma Tuttle (Loretta Young) misses her bus ride home and gets a ride from an amorous student (Douglas Dick.) When he later parks and tries to get fresh with her, she kills him in self defense but doesn't come forward. Detectives aren't sure who committed the murder, but soon piece it together and Tuttle may face charges. This may hinder her budding romance with a lawyer (Robert Cummings.)



MY THOUGHTS

A better script would have set The Accused free from prosecution.

The script doesn't really deliver. It's not bad, but flawed. The fact we see Tuttle kill her student in self defense early on does hurt much of the suspense. There's no way she would get the chair or even much prison time even if facing charges for not coming forward to the cops with the facts.

The film does build suspense as it moves along, but more at a slow boil than your average thriller. There's no big chase or gun play that brings the action to a head. The action is more internal, a la the psychology theme. This makes The Accused far less of a visceral experience. Suspense films by Hitchcock and others are far more successful by having more action, or combining action with internal struggles to make a more complex and exciting film.

Also I feel like the film's been done before many times, before and since, though I can't name any other instances. It all felt too familiar and didn't offer any thing new.

The Accused, because of it's subject content and how it was shot, should be labeled a film noir, but it also offers nothing new in that way either.

Still, despite it's flaws, it remains an interesting and somewhat entertaining film.

This film is not available on DVD.