Review of The Accused

The Accused is the kind of movie that begins promisingly, but then the script loses its nerve. That we root for the movie to be better, indicates the promise it showed, but then lost after the first third of the movie. Loretta Young plays a repressed psychology professor who kills one of her students in self defense, then covers up her crime. For a short time, Young actually stays in character before the script changes her from a frumpy spinster to the glamorous movie star, the better to hide her original appearance from a truck driver who gave her a ride on the evening of the killing. The movie displays many nice touches provided by director William Dieterle. Wendell Corey makes us wish he had been given better roles and the untalented Robert Cummings makes us ask if he was cast as a favor to someone.