The ninth and final feature pairing Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre is set in 1890 London with Greenstreet as Police Inspector George Grodman and Lorre as his friend, illustrator Victor Emmric. Grodman is forced to resign from the force at Scotland Yard after an innocent man he helped convict was sent to the gallows. Grodman is immediately replaced by the arrogant Superintendent John Buckley (George Coulouris) whom he depises.
The plot thickens when we're introduced at Grodman's apartment to the wealthy Arthur Kendall (Morton Lowry) whose aunt was the victim of the murder in which the previously alluded to innocent man paid the ultimate price. Clive Russell (Paul Cavanagh) a pro-labor politician, ends up getting into a big argument with Kendall whom he blames for mistreating his workers-words are exchanged with Russell issuing a veiled threat to harm him out on the street.
Kendall lives in the same building as Victor and Grodman is a resident in a building across the street. When Kendall turns up dead in his locked apartment the next morning, it becomes pretty obvious that Russell appears to be the main suspect in the murder. Eventually Buckley concludes that Russell had the motive to kill Kendall and places him under arrest.
But such a scenario seems a tab too obvious and screenwriter Peter Milne is determined in Act II to serve up a parade of red herrings to distract us from who the real killer might be. Unfortunately these red herrings prove to be inherently weak.
To summarize the deadly dull goings-on in Act II, I shall list them here: Buckley employs a professional burglar who is unable to solve the riddle of how the murder occurred with the windows and doors locked and bolted; Buckley arrests Kendall's girlfriend , cabaret singer Lotte Rawson (Joan Lorring), after he doesn't believe her tale that she argued with Kendall over her request to return a watch fob.
The fob turns up in the deceased Kendall's pocket after his body is exhumed. Lotte also earns points with Buckley by informing him that #1 suspect Russell had a secret lover, Lady Pendleton, a married woman, living in Paris. And just like the first case involving the innocent man who went to the gallows, Buckley arrests Russell on flimsy circumstantial evidence and he too is scheduled to be executed.
May I add there's some additional brouhaha when Mrs. Benson (Rosalind Ivan), the landlady, freaks out when Brodman pretends to be the killer walking around the apartment and is almost shot by Victor who also is completely in the dark.
It turns out the most useless red herring of them all is Victor. How Peter Lorre was convinced to take this role I have no idea-it's truly a complete nothing of a part. All Victor (who just seems completely macabre) ends up doing here is acting as a confidant to Grodman and flirting with Lotte at one point. To throw us off the track during the denouement, Victor becomes so inebriated that Grodman convinces him to go down to Scotland Yard with him and confess to the murder.
I think that Grodman actually just wanted some company and once they arrive at Scotland Yard, Grodman is the one who confesses to killing Kendall. This is after he made a last ditch effort to save Russell first by trying to locate Lady Pendleton (his trip to France is in vain since she turns up dead).
So after all the dull machinations in Act II, Grodman's failed effort to save Russell, and then his confession which does in fact exonerate the imperiled politician, brings us back to the early promise of good things to come in Act I. It appears Grodman's confession is done at the last minute to stick it to Buckley. The only thing I couldn't figure out is how exactly did Grodman figure out so quickly it was Kendall who murdered his aunt.
I also was unclear about Grodman's fate-was he being led away to prison for killing Kendall or will the police decline to arrest him on orders of the District Attorney who might conclude it was an unwinnable case?
The Verdict is a film I cannot recommend as the Act II machinations prove to be so dull and lugubrious and Peter Lorre's part so underwritten, that it detracts from any of the good scenes the film might possess.
The plot thickens when we're introduced at Grodman's apartment to the wealthy Arthur Kendall (Morton Lowry) whose aunt was the victim of the murder in which the previously alluded to innocent man paid the ultimate price. Clive Russell (Paul Cavanagh) a pro-labor politician, ends up getting into a big argument with Kendall whom he blames for mistreating his workers-words are exchanged with Russell issuing a veiled threat to harm him out on the street.
Kendall lives in the same building as Victor and Grodman is a resident in a building across the street. When Kendall turns up dead in his locked apartment the next morning, it becomes pretty obvious that Russell appears to be the main suspect in the murder. Eventually Buckley concludes that Russell had the motive to kill Kendall and places him under arrest.
But such a scenario seems a tab too obvious and screenwriter Peter Milne is determined in Act II to serve up a parade of red herrings to distract us from who the real killer might be. Unfortunately these red herrings prove to be inherently weak.
To summarize the deadly dull goings-on in Act II, I shall list them here: Buckley employs a professional burglar who is unable to solve the riddle of how the murder occurred with the windows and doors locked and bolted; Buckley arrests Kendall's girlfriend , cabaret singer Lotte Rawson (Joan Lorring), after he doesn't believe her tale that she argued with Kendall over her request to return a watch fob.
The fob turns up in the deceased Kendall's pocket after his body is exhumed. Lotte also earns points with Buckley by informing him that #1 suspect Russell had a secret lover, Lady Pendleton, a married woman, living in Paris. And just like the first case involving the innocent man who went to the gallows, Buckley arrests Russell on flimsy circumstantial evidence and he too is scheduled to be executed.
May I add there's some additional brouhaha when Mrs. Benson (Rosalind Ivan), the landlady, freaks out when Brodman pretends to be the killer walking around the apartment and is almost shot by Victor who also is completely in the dark.
It turns out the most useless red herring of them all is Victor. How Peter Lorre was convinced to take this role I have no idea-it's truly a complete nothing of a part. All Victor (who just seems completely macabre) ends up doing here is acting as a confidant to Grodman and flirting with Lotte at one point. To throw us off the track during the denouement, Victor becomes so inebriated that Grodman convinces him to go down to Scotland Yard with him and confess to the murder.
I think that Grodman actually just wanted some company and once they arrive at Scotland Yard, Grodman is the one who confesses to killing Kendall. This is after he made a last ditch effort to save Russell first by trying to locate Lady Pendleton (his trip to France is in vain since she turns up dead).
So after all the dull machinations in Act II, Grodman's failed effort to save Russell, and then his confession which does in fact exonerate the imperiled politician, brings us back to the early promise of good things to come in Act I. It appears Grodman's confession is done at the last minute to stick it to Buckley. The only thing I couldn't figure out is how exactly did Grodman figure out so quickly it was Kendall who murdered his aunt.
I also was unclear about Grodman's fate-was he being led away to prison for killing Kendall or will the police decline to arrest him on orders of the District Attorney who might conclude it was an unwinnable case?
The Verdict is a film I cannot recommend as the Act II machinations prove to be so dull and lugubrious and Peter Lorre's part so underwritten, that it detracts from any of the good scenes the film might possess.