La morte viene da Scotland Yard

Without the box office clout of Warner Brothers leading players, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet made two crackerjack films for their studio, Three Strangers and The Verdict. One only wishes they had done more together.

Greenstreet and Lorre are neighbors in Victorian London and Greenstreet is a Scotland Yard inspector. Another neighbor Morton Lowry has provided invaluable information in the murder of his aunt, a case Greenstreet was assigned to. But after the execution of the suspect which is what began the film, new evidence comes to light proving that an innocent man had been hung.

Greenstreet's rival on the job, George Coulouris practically dances a jig with this news. He's been doing a lot of back channel maneuvering to get Greenstreet canned and himself to take his place. He's truly one hateful dude.

But later on Lowry is found dead in the proverbial locked room and Coulouris is the one now with a baffling case. Greenstreet and his artist friend Peter Lorre who like a bit of a nip now and then are around to offer help which Coulouris would rather die than accept.

How was the murder committee? The only thing I will say on the subject is that when one is good, one can make people believe they see more than they really do.

Lorre and Greenstreet play beautifully off each other and add the presence of Coulouris, you've got the makes of a great film that needs no star power. Such other colorful character players like Paul Cavanaugh, Joan Lorring, Arthur Shields, Rosalind Ivan are also in the cast.

When the solution is given at the end, you'll think it so confounded simple you'll kick yourself you didn't think of it.

Greenstreet and Lorre are not to be missed in any event.

The Verdict is an absolutely absorbing and ingenious locked-room murder mystery, complete with sheer performances and irresistible gothic atmosphere. Set in London, near the end of the 19th century this intelligent movie handles about a seemly insolvable murder. Superintendent Grodman hunts down the murderer of the man who lives across him…unofficially, because Scotland Yard dismissed him after making a mistake in his previous case, which resulted in the execution of an innocent man. Grodman playfully amuses himself by fooling and not helping Supt. Buckley…the ambitious vulture successor who gladly witnessed Grodman's resignation. The characters and their backgrounds in this film are so fascinating…the speculative possibilities and ‘maybe'-motivations are so left open that the Verdict really became the most unpredictable ‘whodunit' thriller I ever saw. And I'm utterly impressed by that. Director Don Siegel based his film on the novel by Israel Zangwill and I can clearly see why this author often gets referred to as ‘the father detective thrillers'. Both basic plot and screenplay are flawless and compelling, complete with fiendish dialogues. Plus…the atmosphere and structure are genius film-noir and gothic-like which is completely Don Siegel's achievement. Siegel, who shot his first long-feature film with The Verdict delivers one of the most powerful debuts in film history ever. Almost as remarkable as John Huston's debut with The Maltese Falcon, I dare to say… There are constant undertones of diabolicalness present, resulting in a high rate finale that leaves you completely speechless. Terrifically done! At one point, we even receive a pretext of what `12 Angry Men' will look like, 11 (!) years before this one gets released!! Don Siegel's later masterpieces perhaps overshadow this little highlight but, to me, this still is his finest film. And that certainly must mean something, seeing his entire repertoire contains milestone-titles like `Invasion of the Body Snatchers', `The Shootist', `Dirty Harry' and `Escape from Alcatraz'.

Of course, The Verdict wouldn't have been half as memorable as it is now if it weren't for the brilliant acting performances. Peter Lorre on top, and not exclusively since he's one of my top 5 favorite actors ever. Lorre is genius as ever as the amiable cartoon-artist obsessed by the sinister details such as corpse digging and strangling. Like in multiple of his other films, he also has a slight drinking problem which gives the film a tiny comical side-aspect. Sydney Greenstreet (best know as Bogart's concurrent in Casablanca) makes a great Supt. Grodman as he manages to remain distinguished and irritated at the same time. Without the slightest doubt, The Verdict receives a rating 10 out of 10 from me…and naturally, it comes with the highest possible recommendation. I'll even buy you a beer if you can name the murderer's identity before the film is over.

It is sad that Sydney Greenstreet's career in film was relatively brief - albeit marked by memorable performances in some truly great movies. He may well have had a successful life on the stage in the bulk of his acting life but his roles in film, in a brief eight year period, are all that is preserved from a long and distinguished career. We can only guess at the performances of a young and perhaps thinner Sydney Greenstreet. Despite all this he made his debut in The Maltese Falcon and then a few films later co-starred in Casablanca, more than making up for the delay in the transition to the big screen. The Verdict sees Greenstreet at his finest as the wizened superintendent whose career has been forever marred by an error of judgment that costs a man his life. This is a perfect whodunit/noir/murder mystery that is still gripping and tight despite the slightly melodramatic ending where revenge is possibly carried a little too close to the wire. Lorre is his usual sinister self, fascinated at the thought of exhuming a dead body and Colouris appropriate as the inept detective. Highly recommended.

Fans of SYDNEY GREENSTREET and PETER LORRE should get extra pleasure out of watching these two emote in THE VERDICT, a gaslight era who-dun-it about the perfect locked door crime with a few deft touches that place it above the average mystery thriller.

Greenstreet is impressive as the Scotland Yard detective who loses his job when an innocent man is wrongly hanged. He gets his revenge in an unusual way. Morton Lowry is excellent as the victim and others in the cast all give quality performances--Paul Cavanagh, Peter Lorre, Rosalind Ivan and especially George Coulouris as the man Sydney describes as not big enough to "fill his britches". Only weak casting is Joan Lorring in the role of a lowly music hall singer--her cabaret routine is not the least bit convincing although it doesn't matter much because the film belongs to Greenstreet and Lorre.

As an overly imaginative landlady, Rosalind Ivan is a scream (literally!) Will keep you hooked until the finish.

When historians talk about the great screen pairings, one hears Tracy and Hepburn and Bogart and Bacall tossed around, as well as other male-female combinations. One of the truly great screen pairings of all time was Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre - the former a large, sinister-looking man, and the latter a small, sinister-looking man with a quirky voice. They made nine films together, and when I see their names in a cast list, I know not to miss the movie.

"The Verdict," made in 1946, is a heavily atmospheric mystery set around 1890, when Supt. George Edward Grodman (Greenstreet) inadvertently sends an innocent man to the gallows for a woman's death and loses his job. The man claimed he had an alibi, but the person wasn't found until after the hanging. After many years in service, Grodman leaves with a blemish on his reputation. Replacing him is his ambitious nemesis, Supt. John R. Buckley (George Coulouris). Grodman begins to write the stories of his various cases, in the hopes that it can serve as a primer for police investigations.

When Arthur Kendall is murdered across the street from him, Grodman is pulled into the investigation, since Kendall's landlady (Rosalind Ivan) summoned him to help her get into the room. Kendall's aunt was the murder victim in the case where the innocent man was hanged. Before Kendall was killed, he visited Grodman, along with Grodman's friend Peter Emmric (Lorre) who lives in the same house as Kendall, and a politician, Clive Russell (Paul Cavanagh), who hates Kendall. Russell and Kendall come to blows outside of Grodman's house. Grodman now finds himself in a position of helping the man who replaced him.

This is an very clever mystery, brought up a few levels by the acting of Greenstreet and Lorre. Paul Cavanagh and George Coulouris turn in good performances in smaller roles, and Joan Lorring is fine as a dance hall girl who was involved with Kendall. Though not a great beauty, she has a great figure and conveys a low class background.

Highly recommended. With the Victorian times, the heavy fog, and the presence of Cavanagh and Coulouris, the film reminds one of the Sherlock Holmes movies.