aka The Murder in Thornton Square (1940) or Angel Street
Directed by Thorold Dickinson, with a screenplay by A.R. Rawlinson and Bridget Boland that was based on the play by Patrick Hamilton, this above average British thriller is tighter (half an hour shorter) than the Academy Award nominated American remake which earned Ingrid Bergman her first Oscar, four years later.
Anton Walbrook plays the role of the mysterious Paul Mallen, who's attempting to drive his wife Bella (Diana Wynyard, in the Bergman role) crazy for reasons of his own. Frank Pettingell plays a retired policeman B.G. Rough, who now takes care of horses (in the day when carriages were the primary transportation in the city), that recognizes Mr. Mallen as Louis Bauer, the nephew of Alice Barlow (Marie Wright), who had been murdered in her home many years earlier, a crime that was never solved.
Walbrook is every bit as good as, if not better than, Charles Boyer in the American version, Wynyard is merely adequate, and Pettingell can't be compared to Joseph Cotten because the latter's role was played as a potential love interest for Bella (whereas Pettingell's was not).
Much different than the aforementioned later production, this film's story begins with Barlow's murder; the culprit (whose face is not shown) ransacks the townhouse trying to find (what we come to find out were) her 20,000 pounds worth of rubies. Years later, the home is reopened for the Mallens, who move in after workmen and their servants - parlor maid Nancy (Cathleen Cordell) and cook Elizabeth (Minnie Rayner) - have prepared it. Mr. Mallen proceeds in hiding various objects (a painting, her broach) from around the house and then accusing his wife Bella of doing it. Additionally, each evening when her husband goes out alone, she witnesses the dimming of her bedroom's gas lanterns and hears strange sounds above her room. Mallen tells Bella that she's imagining things and encourages her belief that she's going insane like a distant relative of hers did long ago. He also intercepts her mail, and later keeps Bella's cousin Vincent Ullswater (Robert Newton) from seeing her.
But Rough is not so easily put off, he smells a rat and pursues the case as Mallen openly pursues an extramarital relationship with Nancy. Jimmy Hanley plays the ex-policeman's assistant of sorts named Cobb, who had been dating Nancy himself. Rough figures out what's going on and, while her husband is out with the hired help, informs Mrs. Mallen of what he's learned - that her husband killed his aunt and has returned to the scene of the crime to search for the valuable jewels on the upper floors each night. When Mallen comes home prematurely, a confrontation and a struggle ensues but Rough, with help from Cobb, gains the upper hand and has (now that his real name has been revealed) Louis Bauer tied up.
I skipped a step regarding the rubies because it, and what happens next while Bella is left alone with her 'husband', differs from the more well known remake ... and I'd hate to spoil it for you;-)
Directed by Thorold Dickinson, with a screenplay by A.R. Rawlinson and Bridget Boland that was based on the play by Patrick Hamilton, this above average British thriller is tighter (half an hour shorter) than the Academy Award nominated American remake which earned Ingrid Bergman her first Oscar, four years later.
Anton Walbrook plays the role of the mysterious Paul Mallen, who's attempting to drive his wife Bella (Diana Wynyard, in the Bergman role) crazy for reasons of his own. Frank Pettingell plays a retired policeman B.G. Rough, who now takes care of horses (in the day when carriages were the primary transportation in the city), that recognizes Mr. Mallen as Louis Bauer, the nephew of Alice Barlow (Marie Wright), who had been murdered in her home many years earlier, a crime that was never solved.
Walbrook is every bit as good as, if not better than, Charles Boyer in the American version, Wynyard is merely adequate, and Pettingell can't be compared to Joseph Cotten because the latter's role was played as a potential love interest for Bella (whereas Pettingell's was not).
Much different than the aforementioned later production, this film's story begins with Barlow's murder; the culprit (whose face is not shown) ransacks the townhouse trying to find (what we come to find out were) her 20,000 pounds worth of rubies. Years later, the home is reopened for the Mallens, who move in after workmen and their servants - parlor maid Nancy (Cathleen Cordell) and cook Elizabeth (Minnie Rayner) - have prepared it. Mr. Mallen proceeds in hiding various objects (a painting, her broach) from around the house and then accusing his wife Bella of doing it. Additionally, each evening when her husband goes out alone, she witnesses the dimming of her bedroom's gas lanterns and hears strange sounds above her room. Mallen tells Bella that she's imagining things and encourages her belief that she's going insane like a distant relative of hers did long ago. He also intercepts her mail, and later keeps Bella's cousin Vincent Ullswater (Robert Newton) from seeing her.
But Rough is not so easily put off, he smells a rat and pursues the case as Mallen openly pursues an extramarital relationship with Nancy. Jimmy Hanley plays the ex-policeman's assistant of sorts named Cobb, who had been dating Nancy himself. Rough figures out what's going on and, while her husband is out with the hired help, informs Mrs. Mallen of what he's learned - that her husband killed his aunt and has returned to the scene of the crime to search for the valuable jewels on the upper floors each night. When Mallen comes home prematurely, a confrontation and a struggle ensues but Rough, with help from Cobb, gains the upper hand and has (now that his real name has been revealed) Louis Bauer tied up.
I skipped a step regarding the rubies because it, and what happens next while Bella is left alone with her 'husband', differs from the more well known remake ... and I'd hate to spoil it for you;-)