CAST: Donald Pleasence (Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen), Coral Browne (Belle Crippen), Samantha Eggar (Ethel Le Neve), Donald Wolfit (R.D. Muir), James Robertson Justice (Captain McKenzie), John Arnatt (Inspector Dew). Directed by Robert Lynn.
SYNOPSIS: Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen (Donald Pleasence) is unhappily married to an American singer named Belle. Over the years, they have grown apart and now fight constantly over Belle’s flirting with other men and Harvey’s inability to express his love. Eventually, Harvey finds affection from Ethel Le Neve, his secretary at work, and the two begin a love affair that drives Belle mad as she constantly berates Harvey and finally forces him to make a choice — either her or Ethel, or else risk being exposed as a philanderer. Desperate not to lose his one true love, Harvey purchases a powerful sedative that he secretly administers to Belle at night to calm her and prevent more fighting. But one night, Belle dies from an accidental overdose and Harvey in a panic hides her body in the basement. But he continues with his relationship with Ethel, even giving her his dead wife’s fancy clothes and jewelry. When the police begin to investigate Belle’s disappearance, the disguised Harvey and Ethel attempt to flee to America on a ship. The captain, however, notices them and after alerting Scotland Yard, Harvey and Ethel end up arrested and are brought back to London to be placed on trial. Harvey is found guilty and after being executed by hanging, Ethel walks away into the distance.
COMMENTARY: Dr. Crippen stands as a fine film dramatization of the infamous 1910 murder case that gripped Great Britain and made plenty of headlines. After the execution of Dr. Crippen, a number of theatre productions and films adapted parts of the case, but Dr. Crippen was the first major British film to cover it and follows the case fairly closely through flashbacks and a few dramatic changes. One example shows Dr. Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve on trial together, although in real life their trials were separate. The case of Dr. Crippen, accused of murdering his wife, hiding her body, and trying to escape with his mistress in disguise fascinated England via all of its lurid and shocking details. Another interesting fact that is played out in the film is that Dr. Crippen was the first criminal to be captured through the use of wireless technology, due to the captain of the ship contacting Scotland Yard to relay his suspicions about two of his passengers.
Pleasence’s perfectly understated performance as the title character proves that he was quite able to carry a film on his own. When Pleasence is first seen being led by the police to the court, a woman bystander spits in his face as a way of reminding him of the viciousness of his crime. Looking much like the actual Dr. Crippen, Pleasence’s hair is neatly combed over and sports a long, bushy mustache and a pair of wire rimmed glasses. His lack of emotion toward his overbearing wife Belle indicates a time bomb ticking away inside of him that is later set off when Belle attempts to force him to end his affair with Ethel or risk public humiliation. His real emotions are saved for Ethel that makes one wonder if he could have had true happiness had he met and married her first. The film also plays up the theory that Dr. Crippen accidentally killed his wife and in a panic hid her body. Pleasence portrays this panic masterfully, helped along by his desperate plan to take Ethel to America to escape the authorities while explaining to her that Belle is still alive and has set the whole thing up against him. Dr. Crippen’s scenes with Ethel aboard the ship are touching but it is a doomed romance with Dr. Crippen begging his lawyer to make certain that Ethel changes her name and never mentions their relationship again.