The Accused was adapted by Ketti Frings from the novel by June Truesdell. Wendell Corey delivers the film's best performance as a quietly efficient homicide lieutenant who suspects that Wilma knows more than she's letting on. But as she follows the police investigation of Perry's death, Wilma realizes that she'll never be able to escape the prison of her own conscience - especially when she falls in love with Warren Ford (Robert Cummings), the dead boy's guardian. Appalled by her own rash behavior, she tries to cover up her crime by making it seem as though Perry was killed while diving into the sea from a precipitous cliff. When Perry tries to rape Wilma under cover of darkness, she beats him to death with a tire iron. Loretta Young stars as Wilma Tuttle, a prim and proper college professor who unwittingly arouses the libido of student Bill Perry (Douglas Dick). The Accused is a mystery melodrama with a predictable plot involving blackmail, attempted rape and murder.
(101 Min.) Genre: 1940 SUSPENSE, Transfer Quality: A Many of these actors, though successful in multiple genres, will be best remembered for their Film Noir performances: Elisha Cook Jr., Edmond O'Brien, Dennis O'Keefe, Robert Cummings, Robert Ryan, Rita Hayworth, Ann Savage, Hugh Beaumont, George Raft, Dana Andrews, Ray Milland, Dan Duryea, Chester Morris, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Lawrence Tierney, Faye Emerson, and John Garfield. Perhaps unlike any other era, this genre featured critically acclaimed films featuring both A and B-list actors with large and small, shoestring budgets.
A familiar theme involves the pursuit of a duplicitous dame and her twisted schemes who would invariably lead our doomed hero into committing robbery or murder in the name of passion or unrequited love. With their distinctive low-key lighting, filmed in black and white, (though some were filmed in color) reflected the insecurities and tensions of the World War II era. These gritty films the 1940s were the beginning of the film noir era. Femme fatales, hard-boiled detectives, and dark story lines.