Darkness Before Dawn [Or The Sunday Morning Movie...]"The Suspect [1944]..."Starring...Charles Laughton and Ella Raines

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The Suspect is a 1944 film noir directed by Robert Siodmak, set in London in 1902, in Edwardian times. It is based on the novel This Way Out, by James Ronald, and was released by Universal Pictures.Starring in the 1944 gothic film noir...

Directed by	Robert Siodmak
Produced by	Islin Auster
Written by	Bertram Millhauser based on the novel "This Way Out" by James Ronald
Starring	Charles Laughton Ella Raines
Music by	Frank Skinner
Cinematography	Paul Ivano
Editing by	Arthur Hilton
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	December 1944
Running time	85 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

It tells the story of Philip Marshall (Charles Laughton), a kind but henpecked accountant who strikes up an innocent friendship with a young stenographer

(played by Ella Raines) who had approached him looking for work. He gradually finds himself falling in love with her, but keeps the relationship platonic.

His wife Cora (Rosalind Ivan), who has also alienated their son with her shrewish ways, suspects the worst and threatens a scandal. Cora dies after a fall down the stairs at home, and it is left to the viewer to decide whether Marshall arranged the fall or not. It is strongly hinted that he did, although the death appears accidental. A Scotland Yard inspector (Stanley Ridges) suspects that Marshall murdered his wife but is unable to prove anything.

An impoverished drunken wife-beating neighbour (Henry Daniell) is very interested to learn of the inspector's suspicions, and relishes the chance to blackmail Marshall, whose respectability he envies. He threatens to invent a story about an argument between Marshall and his wife, which would appear to prove that Marshall had killed his wife. Marshall kills his neighbour.

When the Inspector hears of this second death, he sets a trap in which he pretends to frame his neighbour's long-suffering innocent wife for the murder. The success of the trap depends on Marshall's coming forward, rather than letting the innocent woman hang. The inspector believes that, in spite of everything, Marshall has never lost his innate decency.

In 1955, The Suspect was dramatised for television on Lux Video Theatre, and starred Robert Newton.

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