The Woman Accused (1933)

After a woman's ex-lover (Louis Calhern) threatens to have her fiance (Cary Grant) killed, she (Nancy Carroll) kills him in the heat of the moment. The dead man's business partner (John Halliday) is determined to prove her guilt, even after she denies having been in his apartment. Perfectly dreadful! This pre-code film runs a brief hour and 13 minutes but it seemed like 3 hours! The film is based on a magazine serial attributed to 8 of the "world's greatest writers" with each writer writing one chapter though only Zane Grey and Vicki Baum (GRAND HOTEL) are probably remembered today. It's clearly a case of too many cooks as the ludicrous plot is all over the place. The screenplay's cringe inducing dialog is only matched by the ghastly bad acting. Cary Grant is such a bland piece of white bread that you'd never guess that he would eventually become one of Hollywood's best and most iconic actors. Unless you're a Grant completist, there's no reason to see this though I suppose if you're a connoisseur of bad movies (the whip lashing scene is hysterical), you might want to take a peek. Directed by Paul Sloane. With Irving Pichel, Jack La Rue and Norma Mitchell.