IT’S A SLICE-OF-WIFE PICTURE!
In this true-life horror thriller Donald Pleasance (HALLOWEEN) stars as Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippen, the most notorious murderer of the Edwardian Age. Constantly insulted and humiliated by his vulgar, overbearing wife (Coral Browne), and in love with the much younger and lovelier Ethel Le Veve (Samantha Egger), the mild-mannered doctor plots ‘the crime of the century’. And what a plan! He’s going to poison his wife, dismember her and bury the remains in the basement of their boarding house.
Was Dr Crippen a crafty, cold-blooded killer or simply a man blinded by mad passion? You can decide as one of the most famous trials in British legal history unfolds in this underrated true-crime gem that boasts atmospheric black and white cinematography courtesy of Nicolas Roeg and a chilling character study from Pleasence.