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The Accused is directed by William Dieterle and adapted to screenplay by Ketti Frings from the novel "Be Still, My Love" written by June Truesdell. It stars Loretta Young, Robert Cummings, Wendell Corey, Sam Jaffe and Douglas Dick. Music is by Victor Young and cinematography by Milton R. Krasner.

Wilma Tuttle (Young) is a college professor who is prompted into an act of self defence when one of her students attacks her sexually. The damage done, Wilma covers up her crime and finds her conscience gnawing away at her, especially as she is actively involved in the police investigation…

Good sturdy story is well played out by a good sturdy cast, The Accused makes up for what it lacks in noir visuals with noir infected psychological smarts. Helps that Wilma Tuttle is a strong characterisation in Young's excellent hands, the whole film hinging on the fact that Wilma's crime is perfectly understandable to us viewers, she has our sympathy, more so since she has the chance of love with Cumming's amiable and cunning lawyer.

We follow the police investigation through its various strands of science, with Wilma privy to what is going on as well. This puts a devilish kink to proceedings as Lieutenant Ted Dorgan (Corey) is pretty sure he knows what really happened (an inquest had previously ruled the death as an accident caused whilst diving).

Further spice comes with the knowledge that Dorgan also has the hots for Wilma, thus this puts Wilma in a whirlpool of fear and fret, conscience battering and the amorous attentions of two male suitors, both of whom are intricately bound to the investigation. Plus she's trying to keep it together at work whilst she's teaching her students psychology!

It all builds to a good conclusion, which is nicely open ended, to round production out as an entertaining noirish meller. 7/10

The Accused This is one of those popular story lines in which the killing is shown early on and then the film deals with the police trying to piece things together while the killer tries to look innocent.

In this case, the "accused" is a woman, played by Loretta Young. She plays a college teacher who defends herself against an obnoxious student but then makes the big mistake of trying to cover up the incident, even though it was self- defense, thinking it would look bad if she was discovered being with this student in the first place. (Today, we read true-life stories of worse, sad to say.)

Bob Cummings and Wendell Corey are detectives who know some foul play is involved but then Cummings, who gets increasingly annoying in here, falls in love with Young. He then winds up defending her in the short courtroom finale. Cummings gives a good example how "love is blind."

Corey, meanwhile, plays the determined cop who doesn't care what people think of him so long as he solves the crime. He is by far the most interesting of the characters in this film. Sam Jaffe also entertains in a supporting role as a crime doctor.

It's hard deglamorize Loretta Young, and in fact, even the tailored outfits and the upswept hair don't do it in "The Accused" from 1949, also starring Robert Cummings and Wendell Corey. She's still considered quite a dish by anyone who meets her, including an amorous student (Douglas Dick).

Young plays a psychology professor who, about to be assaulted by a student, kills him and attempts to cover it up. At first it looks like a drowning, but later, it's discovered to be homicide. The young man's guardian (Cummings) arrives as the detective in charge of the case (Corey) zeroes in on Young.

Good movie with effective performances. Douglas Dick is appropriately smarmy.

My only objection would be, looking at it in light of today, the Young character made a bunch of mistakes with this guy that only a really foolish teacher would make today - or possibly back then. He is so obviously sexually aggressive, it's hard to believe she would have allowed herself to be alone with him.

Young and Cummings for me are always watchable, so I liked it.

Here is as "quiet" a suspense film as you are likely to encounter. That is all to the good, as beneath its placid surface crackle psychological crosscurrents that generate tension throughout. Each of the main characters is an interesting study, with ambivalent emotions that alternately spark and grate against those of the others. Additionally (and ironically), these characters are all involved in recognizing and dealing with such behavior, being a psychology professor, a detective and a lawyer respectively. A bit verbose at times, and resolved with a glib, less-than-satisfying ending, this picture nevertheless deserves a wider audience - if it has any at all nowadays. The performances are rock-solid and properly understated for the most part (even by Robert Cummings) in keeping with the conservative small town atmosphere; but there are effective contrasting performances as well, in the smaller roles of the few relatively unbalanced characters, as played by Douglas Dick, Suzanne Dalbert, and especially Sam Jaffee.

This is actually a love story and, as is usually the case with noirs of the 40s, a very well written one, especially since it deals with some rather tricky psychological matters, of which guilt complex resulting in fear approaching the borders of possible schizophrenia is just one. What makes this film more than average of classy noirs of the 40s with a romantic and seriously psychological intrigue is the interesting peripatetic moment of the boxing match, when Loretta Young unintentionally gives herself away, and how very interestingly Robert Cummings as her lawyer and lover reacts to that. The acting is superb throughout, the story is credible and convincing, the dilemma of unintentionally having killed someone and the natural urge to avoid the consequences and take responsibility for what was not intended, anyone can understand and relate to. To all this comes Victor Young's endearing score fashioning the experience with a golden frame, the beauty of which increases all the time. In brief, this is a much underrated, unjustly forgotten and deeply human and interesting film, that deserves some intention after having been more or less buried alive since 50 years.