The Accused
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
William Dieterle
Loretta Young
Robert Cummings
Wendell Corey
Sam Jaffe
Douglas Dick
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Late one night, psychology professor Wilma Tuttle is picked up on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu by Jack Hunter, a kind truck driver. Hunter presumes from Wilma's behavior that she has been stranded because of the unwelcome advances of a date. When Wilma gets home, she shudders, and recalls the day leading up to the evening's events: Wilma gives her university students a written examination on the conditioned reflexes of humans, asking them to describe an unnamed person by his reflexes. After student Bill Perry mercilessly mimics Wilma, she makes an appointment to see him, but then cancels and leaves him a note to consult the dean. Wilma encounters the flirtatious Bill as she is leaving, however, and after he causes her to miss her bus, he offers her a ride, then insists on dinner. As they drive to Malibu, Bill asks Wilma to analyze him, and she tells him that his brilliance and charm conceal a dangerously erratic and poorly controlled personality. Wilma's theory is soon proved correct when Bill drives to an isolated cliffside spot along the coast, changes into his bathing suit to go diving, and then sexually assaults Wilma, who unintentionally kills him while desperately fending off his attack with a tire iron. The next morning, Wilma awakens feeling ill and is obsessed with covering up Bill's death to protect her career. By coincidence, Bill's guardian, lawyer Warren Ford, calls on her and asks her to talk to Susan Duval, a female student who is infatuated with Bill and claims that she is pregnant by him. Shortly afterward, Wilma collapses from pneumonia and awakens a few days later in the university hospital, where news of Bill's death has only recently been reported. A coroner's jury determines that Bill died from drowning and closes the case, but homicide lieutenant Ted Dorgan remains convinced that Bill was murdered. Fully recovered, Wilma attends Bill's funeral and meets Warren, who had sent her flowers while she was ill. After Susan comes under suspicion, Wilma defends her to the dean, claiming that she was only trying to get Bill's attention by saying she was pregnant. A cynical Ted roughly interrogates Susan, who recalls that Bill's last words were that he was going to meet with a "psychlothymiac cutie," a phrase from one of Wilma's exam questions on personality. Wilma becomes frightened when she realizes that Bill described her in his exam, and when she learns that the janitor threw out the note she had left for Bill about their canceled appointment, she replaces it with another, and shows the note and Bill's exam bluebook to Warren. In an effort to disassociate herself from Bill's description of her as a repressed prude, Wilma loosens her hair and dresses less conservatively, and the truck driver who picked her up fails to recognize her. However, while visiting Ted's office, Wilma becomes unnerved when forensics expert Dr. Romley reveals that he has determined that Bill died from a blow to the head, and that he has found splinters from Bill's abalone bucket in his lungs, which suggests that Bill did not drown in the ocean. Wilma becomes hysterical and later, both Romley and Ted are convinced that she is involved in Bill's death. Ted then uses Bill's analysis of Wilma to push her psychologically to the edge. While attending a boxing match with Warren, Wilma is shocked by the men's brutality and cries out, "Bill, you're hurting me." Warren suspects the worst, but nevertheless proposes to her and makes immediate plans to take her to his San Francisco home. Ted forestalls their departure with a subpoena, however, and with Romley's assistance, asks Wilma to participate in a demonstration of how Bill was killed. Wilma reveals her guilt when she picks up the murder weapon and delivers the same type of blows to a plaster cast of Bill's head that she had struck on the night of his death. After Wilma's arrest, Warren defends her at her trial, and in his closing statement insists that Wilma's only crime was concealment, as she killed Bill in self-defense. As Ted listens to Warren's convincing statement, he looks at Wilma's lovestruck face and suspects that he has lost the case.
Director
William Dieterle
Cast
Loretta Young
Robert Cummings
Wendell Corey
Sam Jaffe
Douglas Dick
Suzanne Dalbert
George Spaulding
Sara Allgood
Mickey Knox
Francis Pierlot
Ann Doran
Carole Mathews
Bill Mauch
Frances Sandford
Harry Harvey
Nolan Leary
Sally Shepherd
George Armstrong
Albin Robeling
Jacqueline Thomas
Edward Clark
Rolland Morris
Eric Alden
John Bishop
Douglas Carter
Josephine Whittell
Ralph Montgomery
Joe Gray
Dick Holland
John Indrisano
Frank Darien
Mike Lally
Evelynne Smith
Gladys Blake
Joe Mcturk
Bill Perrott
Charles B. Williams
Franz Roehn
Al Ferguson
Richard Kipling
Jim Davies
Bess Flowers
Bert Moorhouse
Crew
Del Armstrong
Neal Beckner
Richard Blaydon
Malcolm Bulloch
Frank Caffey
Sam Comer
Hans Dreier
Frank Dugas
Farciot Edouart
Joe Egli
Lyle Figland
Ketti Frings
Adolph Froelich
Grace Gregory
Grace Harris
Edith Head
Earl Hedrick
Peggy Higgins
Hayden Hohstadt
Gordon Jennings
Stan Johnson
Richard L. Johnston
Milton Krasner
Jonathan Latimer
Jack Leys
Warren Low
Barré Lyndon
Nellie Manley
Danny Mccauley
Bert Mckay
Don Mckay
Richard Mcwhorter
Jim Miller
Hedvig Mjorud
Byron Munson
Walter Oberst
Fred Phillips
Allen Rivkin
Roy Roberts
Ruth Roberts
Al Roelofs
Robert Rossen
Jack Saper
Charles Schnee
Leonard Spigelgass
Joe Thompson
Herb Tice
Darrell Turnmire
Marvin Weldon
Wally Westmore
Victor Young
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
It's remarkable! Your brains don't show a bit.- Warren Ford
Trivia
Notes
June Truesdell's novel was first serialized in Today's Woman magazine in May 1947. The working titles of this film were Be Still My Love and Strange Deception. Information in the Hal Wallis Collection at the AMPAS Library reveals that actor Henry Travers was initially cast as "Dr. Romley," but withdrew from the role. In addition, Lewis Allen was originally slated to direct the film as part of Paramount's 1947 production schedule, but heithdrew when Paulette Goddard refused to appear in the film. Hollywood Reporter reported the following information about the production: Wallis initially purchased the rights to the June Truesdell novel as a vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck, but was unable to secure Stanwyck's services. Rosalind Russell was also considered for the lead role in this film. Director Byron Haskin was to replace Allen, but when Wallis postponed production due to casting difficulties, Haskin dropped out. This film was shot on location in and around Los Angeles, CA. Some specific locations include the UCLA campus, the Civic Center and the Malibu coastline. Although reviews claimed that French actress Suzanne Dalbert made her debut in this film, she had previously appeared in a bit part in Sorry, Wrong Number (see below). Loretta Young and Robert Cummings reprised their roles in a March 28, 1949 Lux Radio Theatre broadcast.
