Entertaining film noir with Charles Laughton as one of the most sympathetic murderers depicted in a Hollywood film - he's a kindly tobacconist who forms a friendship with a nice girl (Ella Raines) that leads him to knock off both his shrew of a wife (Rosalind Ivers) and blackmailing neighbour. Still, he had to be punished under the Production Code - so when he finds out his neighbour's wife is going to be convicted for the second murder, he does the decent thing and confesses. He's guilted into doing this by the investigating detective. So this is depressing in a way.
Ivers really plays to the gallery but it's an entirely appropriate performance - if you're going to make a movie like this, you need to commit. Thomas Mitchell is the host for this episode and in the chat at the end he makes fun of Laughton's weight - I remember Dick Powell doing this on an earlier show, why couldn't they leave the poor guy alone? It was just mean.
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