WIVES UNDER SUSPICION - 1938 - WARREN WILLIAM - RARE DVD

Warren William, as District Attorney Jim Stowell, is passionate about sending men to the electric chair . . . so passionate that he neglects his wife and works every waking minute. Ahhhh, but neglected wives get bored, angry, and sometimes find someone else to satisfy their needs . . . When the D.A. finally goes home to celebrate his wife's birthday he finds her with Phil and Elizabeth, and Phil seems a bit too friendly with his wife Lucy. After talking about men who neglect their wives for their work, like Caesar did, they toast to Caesar's wife . . . before they remember what happened to her. But that uneasy feeling is soon forgotten as the D.A. takes charge of a murder case where a local college professor kills his wife when he finds her in the arms of another man. The professor has ignored his wife because of his love of teaching, and explains to the D.A. that he went out of his mind when he saw his wife and another man and shot her dead. The D.A. believes that the man shot her dead in a planned and deliberate way, only using the 'other man' excuse to get off from a murder charge. But then . . . as the case is proceeding along . . . the D.A. discovers his wife acting exactly like the professor claimed that HIS wife acted on the night that she went to the arms of another man . . . and the D.A. follows her and discovers her with Phil . . . and the D.A. pulls out HIS gun, aiming through the window at his wife and Phil . . . . Wow, what a story! As it went along I decided that it would end Perry Mason style, with a courtroom bombshell explaining that the professor had not killed his wife, but that her lover actually killed her and put the gun back in the professor's hand as he was out of his mind . . . that would be a great twist . . . but no . . . here was the D.A. with his finger on the trigger ready to fire at his wife and Phil through the lace curtained window . . . this adventure is NOT going the way my mind laid it out . . . where the heck are they going with this story? What will happen next? Who will die next? Who will go to the electric chair? Who will survive? Who will tie up the loose ends and make some kind of ending to this riveting tale of wives under suspicion? Who will pop the big bowl of white kernel popcorn and pour warm melted butter on it before we sit down and watch? Who indeed!

Director: James Whale

Stars: Warren William, Gail Patrick, Ralph Morgan

69 minutes.