The Verdict

1946

Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Mystery / Thriller

4
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 72%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 72% · 50 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.2/10 10 3249 3.2K

scotland yard film noir

Plot summary

After an innocent man is executed in a case he was responsible for, a Scotland Yard superintendent finds himself investigating the murder of his key witness.

Director

Don Siegel Photo
Don Siegel

Top cast

Morton Lowry Photo
Morton Lowry as Arthur Kendall
Ian Wolfe Photo
Ian Wolfe as Jury Foreman
William H. O'Brien Photo
William H. O'Brien as Constable
Joan Lorring Photo
Joan Lorring as Lottie Rawson
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
795.6 MB
1280*934
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds 8
1.44 GB
1480*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 26 min
Seeds 24

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AAdaSC 7 / 10

Justice is done

Sydney Greenstreet (Grodman) is relieved of his position at the police force after an innocent man is hanged under his watch. Devious George Coulouris, who has contributed to Greenstreet's downfall by not helping in the investigation, replaces him. When Morton Lowry (Kendall) is found murdered, Greenstreet can sit back and watch Coulouris make a hash of the investigation, a role that he relishes.The cast are all good with Greenstreet and funny, morbid artist Peter Lorre (Victor) leading the way. The story is set in Victorian times in England and has plenty of foggy atmosphere. It's a murder mystery type of film that keeps you guessing as to who the murderer could be. You're bound to change your mind a few times but will you get it right? The film moves along at a good pace and is an enjoyable experience as you watch it thanks to the cast. Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet deliver their lines perfectly and they can be very funny as well as very misleading. They have great chemistry together as always.
Reviewed by TheLittleSongbird 7 / 10

Verdict: very good

Have always liked film noir, and there are many classics that are too numerous to list. Consider Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre to be fine actors and always loved seeing them together, at their best they were dynamite. Don Siegel did some great films, with 'Dirty Harry' for example being iconic and 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' (deservedly a landmark in its genre) and 'The Shootist' also among his best.Thought 'The Verdict' to be a very good film. Much better than credit for, although well liked by a lot here also did read reviews from others that ranged from mixed to unimpressed. And it deserves to be much better known. Both Greenstreet and Lorre have done better, individually and together, and 'The Verdict' is not one of Siegel's best. They all come off well though, and do find the film to be much better than modestly suspenseful as has been described/indicated in reviews read.It did slow down somewhat in pace at times in the middle. Joan Lorring to me felt bland in her role.While the reveal and murderer identity was a genuine shock and had me floored, the staging of the ending itself is a touch melodramatic.Both Greenstreet and Lorre excel though, in the last of their teamings, with roles well suited to them and play to their strengths. Greenstreet's is bigger and he shows no signs of fatigue or disinterest, while Lorre has the more colourful role and he is very entertaining to watch. Their chemistry is as riveting as one expects, bringing the right amount of tension and entertainment value. George Coulouris makes a big impression here as well.Siegel, in his first feature film, does a more than credible job and while he did better films and his directing style became more refined this is hardly the work of an amateur. 'The Verdict' looks great, with moody photography and a handsomely rendered and vividly atmospheric Victorian setting. The music, while not mind-blowing, fits very well rather than being discordant with the atmosphere.'The Verdict' further benefits from a tightly structured and intelligent script, that treats its viewers with respect, and to me the story did have suspense and thrills (not quite nail-biting but more than modest), going at a mostly crisp pace while meandering a little in the middle. Didn't find it predictable or implausible.On the whole, very well done film. 7/10
Reviewed by blanche-2 8 / 10

Victorian mystery with one of the great screen pairs

When historians talk about the great screen pairings, one hears Tracy and Hepburn and Bogart and Bacall tossed around, as well as other male-female combinations. One of the truly great screen pairings of all time was Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre - the former a large, sinister-looking man, and the latter a small, sinister-looking man with a quirky voice. They made nine films together, and when I see their names in a cast list, I know not to miss the movie."The Verdict," made in 1946, is a heavily atmospheric mystery set around 1890, when Supt. George Edward Grodman (Greenstreet) inadvertently sends an innocent man to the gallows for a woman's death and loses his job. The man claimed he had an alibi, but the person wasn't found until after the hanging. After many years in service, Grodman leaves with a blemish on his reputation. Replacing him is his ambitious nemesis, Supt. John R. Buckley (George Coulouris). Grodman begins to write the stories of his various cases, in the hopes that it can serve as a primer for police investigations.When Arthur Kendall is murdered across the street from him, Grodman is pulled into the investigation, since Kendall's landlady (Rosalind Ivan) summoned him to help her get into the room. Kendall's aunt was the murder victim in the case where the innocent man was hanged. Before Kendall was killed, he visited Grodman, along with Grodman's friend Peter Emmric (Lorre) who lives in the same house as Kendall, and a politician, Clive Russell (Paul Cavanagh), who hates Kendall. Russell and Kendall come to blows outside of Grodman's house. Grodman now finds himself in a position of helping the man who replaced him.This is an very clever mystery, brought up a few levels by the acting of Greenstreet and Lorre. Paul Cavanagh and George Coulouris turn in good performances in smaller roles, and Joan Lorring is fine as a dance hall girl who was involved with Kendall. Though not a great beauty, she has a great figure and conveys a low class background.Highly recommended. With the Victorian times, the heavy fog, and the presence of Cavanagh and Coulouris, the film reminds one of the Sherlock Holmes movies.
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