The Accused

The Accused (1949)

Everything points to... the Accused!

When college student Bill Perry grows inappropriately fond of psychology professor Wilma Tuttle and tries to rape her, her self-defense inadvertently kills him. Wilma then moves Bill's corpse to a nearby beach and makes his death look like the result of a cliff diving accident. But her guilt over the incident builds, and Lt. Ted Dorgan begins to suspect that Wilma knows more than she's letting on.

Date of release
1949-01-12
TMDB
6.2 / 10 (27)
Runtime
1h 41m
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Director
William Dieterle

Casting

Interesting facts

The Accused is a 1949 American drama film starring Loretta Young, Robert Cummings and Wendell Corey. It was directed by William Dieterle, produced by Hal Wallis and written by Ketti Frings, based on Be Still, My Love, a 1947 novel written by June Truesdell.

Production

In June 1946, Hal Wallis bought the film rights to an unpublished novel by June Trusedell, Be Still, My Love, for a reported price of $75,000. The film was to be a vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck and would be produced at Wallis' home base of Paramount Pictures. In December, Wallis disclosed that filming would begin in January 1947 with an overall budget of $8,500,000. However, production was delayed.

In March 1947, Don DeFore was announced as the male lead. In November, Stanwyck withdrew because "the script was too stupid to shoot". Wallis then cast her in Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), his only other script that was ready for production. In January 1948, Kirk Douglas, then under contract to Wallis, was linked to the project.

In February, Wallis announced that Loretta Young would play the lead and that the film would be titled Strange Deception. The other lead roles were assigned to Robert Cummings and Wendell Corey, both under contract to Wallis. According to Young, shortly before filming began, Wallis approached her suggesting that Cummings and Corey switch roles, with Cummings to play the detective and Corey the male lead.

Young later said that she loved the film and the script, adding that screenwriter Ketti Frings "was a wonderful writer ... she knew and liked women ... she also knew their stupid little frailties ... a very good story." Young also said that Wallis "bent over backwards trying to do everything nice all during the picture."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended