To me, this movie is perfection.

Excellent adaptation.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A sales manager (Gary Cooper) fingers coworker (Ray McAnally) for the murder of his boss and theft of a large sum of money. After the trial, Cooper tells wife Deborah Kerr that he is purchasing a business with a large sum of money he made from a killing in the market. With the prodding of blackmailer Eric Portman, Kerr grows increasingly suspicious that her husband was guilty of the murder and theft. Cooper was horribly miscast: He was too old for this role - he looked ridiculous next to Kerr discussing how they were struggling to make it. Coop at the time was around 60 years old and looked much older; by contrast Kerr was about 40 and looked younger (and was lovely to boot). Thus he's never believable in the role. The direction of this movie left much to be desired. The scenes become tedious replaying themselves over several times. Music blares at points when high suspense is supposed to build. The courtroom scenes were stagy and failed to build any drama. The ending was less than satisfactory feeling rushed and not tying in the loose ends. Nevertheless, the cast is good and turned in fine performances with the exception of Cooper, who struggled with the dialog, and Michael Wilding who is mostly wasted. And the plot is interesting enough but the script and execution are lacking. Some of the cinematography of London is very good and in general the film has an appropriate dark noirish atmosphere. However, there's a good reason why this is a forgotten thriller.

I watched this film because of the two lead actors. However, the casting was the ONLY good thing about this stinker. This was easily one of the worst films I have sat all the way through.While Gary Cooper and Deborah Kerr did the best they could with a repetitive, unimaginative script, the two stars lacked chemistry which didn't help.Further holding back the film was the laughable music, an early instance of music telling people exactly what to think, feel and expect.The directing was uninspired, etc. etc. etc.I wish I had anything positive to say to about this, but sadly, I don't.

Several commenters have chided this, the final picture of Gary Cooper, for being overscored. They did so with good reason. William Alwyn's music almost turn the story into a parody of a suspense movie -- "The Naked Gun" rather than "The Naked Edge." It's awful.But it's concordant with the direction by Michael Anderson. In the first five minutes, while Cooper is being questioned in a British courtroom, he is asked who else was in the building when the murder occurred. Cooper hesitates, looks uncomfortable, and finally says, "Heath." The camera zooms at lightning speed into a closeup of the man's startled face, accompanied by a crescendo of brass. Terrible. The jury foreman stands up and says, "Yes, your honor. We find the defendant (cut suddenly to a giant closeup of the speakers face) -- "guilty." The defendant leaps to his feet and shrieks, "I'm innocent! YOU did it, Radcliffe!" Ho hum. It's a dark, spare melodrama and resembles an episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour." As a matter of fact, the plot is similar to Hitchock's "Suspicion." Well, poor Mr. Heath is marched off to the slams for the rest of his life. And if he did the murder and absconded with the sixty thousand pounds, he well deserves his sentence. BUT -- did he do it? Immediately after the trial, Cooper begins acting strangely. He speaks of grandiose plans involving a great deal of capital. Where did the money come from? He's been playing the stock market and, "I made a KILLING." He roughs up a man who is following him out of curiosity. All this, and more, foments uncertainty in the mind of his wife, Deborah Kerr, who -- and I hate to use this expression -- is as lovely as she's ever been. She has long wavy hair, innocent features, a recherché nose, and a winsome voice. She breathes elegance. If she lived to be a hundred years old, she'd still be elegant. I -- I just thought for a second of her legs, and I grovel in shame.Six years after the trial, Cooper has gone up in the business world and the couple are now well off. But a blackmail letter arrives. Kerr is still puzzled, still believes Cooper innocent of any wrongdoing but Cooper himself senses doubt in her, and he's upset by the letter. He snarls a bit and frowns, lighted in such a way as to be caricature of a man with a secret. There's a shot of him sharpening his straight razor. A slight chicane in the plot here. Cooper began spending money to buy property a year after the murder and theft. He claims he made money on the stock market. Easily solved. I could write Kerr's line for her. "Oh, dear, I have nothing to do this afternoon and I wonder if I might leaf through your brokerage accounts and see if I can understand any of it without my poor head swimming." It wouldn't take much skill to interpret the trades. Anyone could understand my account, despite the rusty stains of dried blood and the gloss of vulgar expressions.The performances are professional enough, although it's difficult to watch someone like Gary Cooper acting not just like a murderer but like a particularly dumb one. It's sad too because we know now that he was not only old but dying. Nice job by Eric Portman as the man who knew too much. All are hobbled by the inferior script and the pedestrian direction. It's not an insulting movie, and it does have its moments, but neither is it very good.

In Gary Cooper's last performance you can see that he is almost washed up, acting like an old age Roark (from 'The Fountainhead') stiffer than ever with very little stamina left, while fortunately Deborah Kerr makes up for it completely in her superb rendering of a married lady who just can't make things add up, wavering between an increasing suspicion of her husband's possibly having committed an heinous murder while at the same time refusing to believe it could be true. Another asset is Peter Cushing's brilliant acting as the prosecutor. The film begins with the murder trial with Gary Cooper sweating from the beginning, he himself can't make things quite fit while he is perfectly convinced that he couldn't be wrong, while the triumph of the film is the very clever story. By the accumulating inconsistencies a suspense is mercilessly built up and increased all the way to the bitter end in a virtuoso thriller more like Hitchcock than any Hitchcock. The real turning point though is the marvellous scene with Diane Cilento as the victim's wife, whom Deborah Kerr visits with traumatic consequences, which really triggers her suspicion and conviction that nothing in this story fits. After the climax in the end with all battles fought to the bitter end, everything falls into place however with perfect logic. This is a marvel of a thriller, and not even Hitchcock could have made it more exasperating in its irrevocably constantly increasing unbearable suspense. This is Michael Anderson's best film, and you regret that he didn't make more films like this one.