General Film Distributors
Directed by David Lean
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)
A young Lady in Glasgow carries on an illicit affair with a Frenchman behind the back of her domineering father. She proposes to elope with him, but he is more interested in her money. Rejected, she begins to fall in love with a more appropriate suitor. However, the Frenchman continues to show up at inopportune times demanding her attention. When he turns up dead by arsenic poisoning, her incriminating love letters and possession of the poison for "cosmetic" purposes lead to her arrest for murder. A long trial follows, which captures news headlines across the country. Director Lean carefully avoids any direct evidence of her guilt, so we are not sure if she is the murderer or not during the trial. The ending leaves more questions than answers, which may be unsatisfactory to most viewers, but I found it fit perfectly. However, the film does often wallow in melodramatics, particularly in the first half, and the swelling violin music is overpowering at times. Ann Todd, the director's wife, is perfectly cast: her ice-cold demeanor makes you believe she could indeed commit murder.
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