Payment Deferred

Of all the stars of the 1930s, Charles Laughton was probably one of the most unlikely. He was fat, not handsome, and as hammy as any film actor in history. But he was also a colossal talent. For years, filmgoers couldn't take their eyes of him when he was on screen. Laughton was a star. Payment Deferred was an early starring role, and while Laughton is twitchy and hammy, he's also wonderful as the timid bank clerk who turns to murder. Stagy but effective little thriller. Maureen O'Sullivan and Ray Milland (in one of his first sizable roles) are also good as are Dorothy Peterson (as the wife), Veree Teasdale (as the shop owner), Halliwell Hobbes, Ethel Griffies, Doris Lloyd, Billy Bevan, and William Stack. But Laughton is front and center and he's a joy to watch.

For those who feel this film reminds them of a stage play I must say I have seen a few movies that could fit that description, but Payment Deferred does not.

The characters draw you into their world, a small glimpse of life during the early part of the last century. My mother used to squeeze oranges for my dad each morning on the same sort of juicer Charles Laughton uses while caring for his wife. And always having guests come in to the (usually) single heated room was de rigueur.

The comment regarding the clues being too obvious was likely from a younger person - in the old days one did not touch anything belonging to the father of the household! We were not even allowed to change the radio dial. My grandmother was not allowed to paint on Sundays or use bright colours, my dad could not read the funny papers on a Sunday, his children could not attend the movie theatre.

Payment Deferred drew me back into its time capsule - good story, casting and excellent acting.

This crime-doesn't-pay melodrama features a pyrotechnical performance by Charles Laughton as an impoverished bank clerk who poisons and robs his wealthy nephew, using the spoils to speculate with great success on the currency exchange, sending him into a high income bracket virtually overnight.

The exposition is glaringly obvious and contrived, especially the key sequence of the murder itself which is right out of a 1909 two-reeler. Yet it's all gripping because you can't help wondering how it will all work out.

Surrounding the main course of Laughton's steaming spiced ham are plausible performances from Dorothy Peterson as his timid, long-suffering wife, Maureen O'Sullivan as his innocent, earnest daughter, Ray Milland as the ill-fated nephew who shows up out of nowhere just when the plot needs him, and last but not least Miss Veree Teasdale in her element as a cold, greedy, calculating shop owner who develops a sudden interest in Laughton when she learns of his newly acquired wealth.

One can only surmise that the source play developed the situations more convincingly because the essential arc makes sense: a desperate man commits a crime and gets away with it for a while, only to pay for it later in an unexpected way. Between these two high marks we see the corrosive effect of sudden monetary gain on the mores of a lower class family unit.

Finally, Laughton gets to indulge in a spell of insane cackling as he did in another 1932 release, "Devil and the Deep."

It seems like something Hitchcock might do, in that what the wrongdoer did from the start is known, and it is also somewhat like a film noir in that you can see how the main character might have spent his entire life as a law abiding citizen had he not become desperate.

Often seen on Turner Classic Movies in the past, since MGM had the rights to it, it hasn't been shown for over four years. It is about a bank teller, William Marble (Charles Laughton), whose family bills have mounted to the point that the bank tells him if he does not settle his accounts they will fire him. (That will fix things!...for the bank). A family meeting over the matter shows that although the Marbles live simply there were some discretionary expenses.

Then one night in the midst of this crisis a long forgotten nephew, James Medland (Ray Milland) from Australia, shows up. Marble's wife and daughter retire for the evening, and when Marble sees that his nephew is carrying considerable cash, he pitches his idea of betting on the French franc, since he knows about a plan to manipulate the currency. Medland flatly refuses and wants to leave, but Marble tries to make it up with him by having a drink with him. This is where those camera supplies that Marble bought come in handy. They include cyanide.

You don't actually SEE what happens, but by Laughton's mannerisms, off hand remarks, and his preoccupation with the backyard you know he killed the nephew, buried him in the backyard, and took his cash. Marble goes and makes his currency trades and ends up with thirty thousand pounds, enough for his family to live on for the rest of their lives. Or until inflation kicks in but that's another story.

But Marble really isn't free. He's just traded off one set of troubles for another. His wife wants to move to a different house. Theirs is rather shabby. But he refuses. It becomes the source of some tension between them, but there he is - the rich man tethered to the grave of his unwilling benefactor for the rest of his life or else it is the gallows. And Winnie, his daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan), becomes a partying snob and back talker. He sends his wife and daughter on a vacation without him so maybe his nerves will heal. And up like a snake pops a neighborhood shopkeeper and he has an affair, but all she really wants is to blackmail him, threatening to tell his wife. And then the notices appear in the paper asking people if they have seen James Medland, because his family has heard nothing and he has disappeared.

How does this all turn out?Watch and find out the great ironic ending. One matter of interest - three members of the cast were reunited 16 years later in Paramount's "The Big Clock" - Laughton, Milland, and O'Sullivan. Laughton had reached legend status by this time, but fortunes had really turned for Ray Milland, who is the main character in that film versus spending the vast majority of this film pushing up daisies, literally speaking.

Nice dark, interestingly twisted little tale about murder and the inevitable insanity that accompanies it. I was especially taken with the treatment of Mr. Marble's wife who strikes me as even more wacko than he is, albeit in a more subtle way. At its best this film resembles early Hitchcock offerings like "Murder" and "The Lodger" although you can bet your cyanide bottle that had Hitch directed it he would have cut out the needless opening and maudlin last scene and put a check on Laughton's usual scenery chewing. Give it a B.