best movie i've ever seen.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Warren William stars in this 1938 drama from Universal about a hard driving law and order District Attorney who gets a chance to reflect on his own attitudes and display the quality of mercy as the Bard put it. It's not an easy thing for him to do by any means.His chance comes when he prosecutes shy and retiring political science professor Ralph Morgan who in a fit of jealous rage shot his unfaithful wife. William gets a confession out of him and goes full blast to give him the electric chair even with high priced defense attorney Samuel S. Hinds working for Morgan.What brings him to a reassessment of the case and his attitudes is an Othello like episode in his own life. There's no Iago in the film egging William on, but he develops an almost insane jealousy about his wife Gail Patrick and a young neighbor William Lundigan. And unlike Morgan it's all in his own mind.Some good attention should be paid for Cecil Cunningham as William's girl Friday assistant in his office who lives up to her character name of 'Sharpy' with some very devastating lines. But stealing the film whenever he's on screen is Ralph Morgan. Such a pitiable creature he is you can't conceive of someone like him going to the chair.The film takes some interesting attitudes, not popular at this time about the death penalty. Wives Under Suspicion is a fine drama and comes highly recommended.

Wives Under Suspicion (1938) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A tough as nails D.A. (William Warren) is seeking the death penalty on a man charged with killing his wife after catching her cheating. The D.A. refuses to see any other side of the story under he begins to think his own wife is cheating. This is the first non-horror film from director James Whale that I've seen and while it isn't too bad I'm certainly thankful he stayed in the horror genre. Warren gives a good performance but the story is rather flat and way too overly dramatic to be too interesting. This was a remake of the 1933 film THE KISS BEFORE THE MIRROR, also directed by Whale.

This is a truly original story. Granted, it was done in 1938, but I haven't seen anything quite like it since. That's unusual for Hollywood. Warren Williams is an obsessed District Attorney who is incapable of any human feeling toward the people he prosecutes. And then a case comes along. A refined, educated, teacher kills his wife in a moment of mad jealousy. Warren has no mercy for him. Coaxes him into a confession with the ultimate goal of executing him.The gimmick in this story is that, during the trial, he realizes that he is living a parallel life. He has neglected his own wife and come to believe that she is having an affair. After following her to a friends house, he finds himself with a pistol in his hand - a perfect parallel to the case he is trying. It changes his life.Warren Williams has a tendency to overact, but to hear him bellow in the courtroom, and cackle with glee when he pulls one over on his adversaries, is not to be missed. There is one caution. Is it possible to be too sophisticated? All the other actors are unremarkable, with the exception of Lillian Yarbo who plays the maid. Her lines and expressions are priceless.If, like me, you long for the days when Hollywood took the time to actually write a coherent script. A time when dialogue really meant something. A time when you second guessed the story and paid attention to the actors - instead of the special effects, take time out for this one. If you can find it.

Not a spectacular film, but it's always worthwhile to keep a close eye on Whale's works.Here we have district attorney Stowell, someone who is only satisfied when the criminals are duly punished. He has a special kind of an abacus with which he counts his successes: one skull for every murderer that he has sent to the electric chair. (Sharpy, his secretary, doesn't like it: „I wish you get rid of that hideous contraption. It gives me the willies.").Someday there is another case of murder. A workaholic has shot his neglected wife out of jealousy. Stowell must learn that his own situation is a parallel to the one of that man and finally he sees himself with a pistol in the hand ...Funny are the scenes with Creola, the maid. It's priceless how Lillian Yarbo delivers her lines.There's not much action in this film, but all the more dialogs.