Genial shopkeeper Philip has to endure the constant nagging of a shrewish wife while he secretly yearns for a pretty young stenographer. When the henpecking gets to be too much, Philip murders his wife and manages to make her death look like an accident. A ruthless blackmailer and a low-key detective both discover Philip's secret, and he has to decide which of them poses the more dangerous threat.
Acting
Laughton's trembling hands and wounded eyes—villainy never looked so pitiful.
Cinematography
Shadow-drenched London streets that practically breathe guilt.
Direction
Siodmak squeezes unbearable tension from tea cups and staircase landings.
Director
Robert Siodmak
Charles Laughton
Philip Marshall
Ella Raines
Mary Gray
Dean Harens
John Marshall
Stanley Ridges
Inspector Huxley
Henry Daniell
Mr. Simmons
Rosalind Ivan
Cora Marshall
Molly Lamont
Mrs. Simmons
Raymond Severn
Merridew
Eve Amber
Sybil
Maude Eburne
Mrs. Packer
Clifford Brooke
Mr. Packer
Gerald Hamer
Griswold (uncredited)
Ernie Adams
Cabbie (uncredited)
Jimmy Aubrey
Pogson (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Rosalind Ivan (Cora) was so convincingly awful that she became typecast as shrewish wives for years after.
Siodmak fled Nazi Germany in 1933; his noirs often explore how respectable surfaces hide monstrous truths.
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