This is a rather interesting tale of an accidental killing that turns both into a travesty of justice and battle of conscience for the one responsible for the killing.
Lovers Wanda (Vivien Leigh) and Larry (Laurence Olivier) are in the honeymoon phase of their love, when one night they enter Wanda's apartment and there is a guy who somewhat resembles Jabba the Hutt claiming to be Wanda's estranged husband and trying to put the squeeze on her - for money not affection. He's three times Larry's size, but when he gets physically aggressive Larry fights back and manages to get his hands around his neck. He only means to hold on until the man stops fighting, but unfortunately he does not stop fighting until he dies.
Why doesn't Larry call the police and explain things? This is never clear. Maybe he doesn't want Wanda embroiled in a scandal - carrying on with Larry when married to another although estranged. Maybe he believes he will not be believed. But then, maybe he is also worried for the reputation of his brother who has just been named a judge.
So Larry carries this huge man's body and tries to place it outside in such a way that he MIGHT be considered some homeless person who just died of exposure if the police are sloppy. Too bad, the police are not sloppy, and worse they arrest an ex-minister who has become a bum and who confesses to the police "he has lost his self respect" and "done a terrible thing". But that terrible thing was to steal some money and the ring of the dead man once he knew he was dead. No matter, the police arrest the minister, a guy with no known violent past, for killing somebody he obviously did not know.
Meanwhile, Larry has confessed all to his brother, who advises both he and Wanda burn all things showing that they have ties to each other and not see each other until this blows over. Apparently Larry's brother the judge doesn't have any faith in the British justice system either, or maybe he is just afraid of the scandal and his own career. He assures Larry the minister will never hang for something with such circumstantial evidence.
Well Larry shows up at the arraignment. In spite of the fact that it is obvious that the minister, if not innocent, is at least touched in the head, he is held over for trial in three weeks. Larry ignores his brother's advice to leave the country and avoid Wanda and says he will take his next quarter's allowance, spend frivolously on Wanda, enjoy their 21 days - the time to the trial - and then turn himself in.
This next part of the film, with Larry and Wanda basically having what amounts to a 21 day holiday, is the best part of the film. Not so much because of the plot or acting, but because you get a good look at England two years before WWII started, and it is interesting to look at the buildings and even amusement parks before the bombing gutted London. You could almost equate Larry and Wanda to pre-war England. They know possibly bad things are ahead in the near future, but in spite of that life carries on for them, for awhile anyways. Also notice that Larry has a good natured good hearted German landlord with whom he strikes up quite a friendship, protecting him from his skinflint Scottish wife. How weird this must have looked when it was released in 1940.
I just noticed a few more odd things. Larry is considered the wastrel of the family, but it is he who has a conscience both about a killing he did in self defense and the fate of a wrongly accused man. His brother, the honored judge, seems only interested in preserving the family name and his reputation. Yet he is the one sitting in judgment of others and has high social status.
I'd recommend it for a whole bunch of reasons that really have nothing to do with the plot, probably most of all a chance to see both Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh before they had great fame acting in a film together before Olivier's long drawn out divorce from Jill Esmond could be finalized and he and Vivien could be married.
Lovers Wanda (Vivien Leigh) and Larry (Laurence Olivier) are in the honeymoon phase of their love, when one night they enter Wanda's apartment and there is a guy who somewhat resembles Jabba the Hutt claiming to be Wanda's estranged husband and trying to put the squeeze on her - for money not affection. He's three times Larry's size, but when he gets physically aggressive Larry fights back and manages to get his hands around his neck. He only means to hold on until the man stops fighting, but unfortunately he does not stop fighting until he dies.
Why doesn't Larry call the police and explain things? This is never clear. Maybe he doesn't want Wanda embroiled in a scandal - carrying on with Larry when married to another although estranged. Maybe he believes he will not be believed. But then, maybe he is also worried for the reputation of his brother who has just been named a judge.
So Larry carries this huge man's body and tries to place it outside in such a way that he MIGHT be considered some homeless person who just died of exposure if the police are sloppy. Too bad, the police are not sloppy, and worse they arrest an ex-minister who has become a bum and who confesses to the police "he has lost his self respect" and "done a terrible thing". But that terrible thing was to steal some money and the ring of the dead man once he knew he was dead. No matter, the police arrest the minister, a guy with no known violent past, for killing somebody he obviously did not know.
Meanwhile, Larry has confessed all to his brother, who advises both he and Wanda burn all things showing that they have ties to each other and not see each other until this blows over. Apparently Larry's brother the judge doesn't have any faith in the British justice system either, or maybe he is just afraid of the scandal and his own career. He assures Larry the minister will never hang for something with such circumstantial evidence.
Well Larry shows up at the arraignment. In spite of the fact that it is obvious that the minister, if not innocent, is at least touched in the head, he is held over for trial in three weeks. Larry ignores his brother's advice to leave the country and avoid Wanda and says he will take his next quarter's allowance, spend frivolously on Wanda, enjoy their 21 days - the time to the trial - and then turn himself in.
This next part of the film, with Larry and Wanda basically having what amounts to a 21 day holiday, is the best part of the film. Not so much because of the plot or acting, but because you get a good look at England two years before WWII started, and it is interesting to look at the buildings and even amusement parks before the bombing gutted London. You could almost equate Larry and Wanda to pre-war England. They know possibly bad things are ahead in the near future, but in spite of that life carries on for them, for awhile anyways. Also notice that Larry has a good natured good hearted German landlord with whom he strikes up quite a friendship, protecting him from his skinflint Scottish wife. How weird this must have looked when it was released in 1940.
I just noticed a few more odd things. Larry is considered the wastrel of the family, but it is he who has a conscience both about a killing he did in self defense and the fate of a wrongly accused man. His brother, the honored judge, seems only interested in preserving the family name and his reputation. Yet he is the one sitting in judgment of others and has high social status.
I'd recommend it for a whole bunch of reasons that really have nothing to do with the plot, probably most of all a chance to see both Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh before they had great fame acting in a film together before Olivier's long drawn out divorce from Jill Esmond could be finalized and he and Vivien could be married.