Dr. Crippen (1962)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Robert Lynn

Writer:

Leigh Vance (writer)

Release Date:

3 June 1966 (Finland)

Genre:

Drama | Crime

Tagline:

The crime of the century! Was he really guilty?

Plot:

The real-life story of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, who was hanged in London in 1910 for poisoning his wife so he could be with his young lover. But was he truly guilty of murder?

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Cast

Donald Pleasence	...	Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen
Coral Browne	...	Belle Crippen
Samantha Eggar	...	Ethel Le Neve
Donald Wolfit	...	R.D. Muir (as Sir Donald Wolfit)
James Robertson Justice	...	Captain McKenzie
John Arnatt	...	Chief Inspector Dew
Oliver Johnston	...	Lord Chief Justice
John Lee	...	Harry
Olga Lindo	...	Mrs. Arditti
Elspeth March	...	Mrs. Jackson
Geoffrey Toone	...	Mr. Tobin
Edward Underdown	...	The Governor
Douglas Bradley-Smith	...	Dr. Pepper
Hamilton Dyce	...	Dr. Rogers
Basil Henson	...	Mr. Arditti

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | UK:PG (video rating) (1992) | UK:X (original rating)

Trivia:

Last full length feature film of Olga Lindo.

The Good 'Dr.'

A compact, modestly budgeted movie that looks perfectly at home on home video (which is how I saw it). "Dr. Crippen" boasts flavorful performances by Donald Pleasence as the not-so-good doctor, Coral Browne as the long-suffering as well as insufferable Belle, and a pre-"Collector" Samantha Eggar as Ethel Le Neve, every unhappily married middle-aged man's fantasy. Casting the British-born Pleasence and Australian native Browne as the American Crippens hardly seems to matter. Eggar may have been too beautiful to play Le Neve (who, judging from photographs, was still a darkly attractive young woman). The movie is, perhaps, too economical; although we do get to see Crippen and Le Neve disguised as father and son for their ill-fated ocean voyage, I wished other colorful details of the case had also been re-created, such as Crippen's recklessly escorting Le Neve to a charity ball shortly after his wife's disappearance. As for the movie's suggestion that Crippen wasn't truly guilty of premeditated murder, my reply is: perhaps - but that doesn't really explain why Crippen cut up his wife's body and buried the pieces in the coal cellar.

The real Ethel Le Neve was still alive when this film was first released (she died in 1967). One wonders if she saw it. One wonders what she thought if she had.