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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1960s
    Movies - 1960s Movies - D 2 Mins Read

    Dr Crippen (1963)

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    American-born Hawley Harvey Crippen (nicknamed “Peter”) was a mild-mannered, middle-aged doctor who made his living in London selling quack remedies.

    He was convicted and hanged in 1910 for poisoning his wife, Belle, dismembering her body and burying the remains in the coal cellar of their home at 39 Hilldrop Crescent in North London before fleeing England with his young attractive mistress (dressed as a boy), only to be arrested aboard ship while en route to North America.

    The movie version of his story opens with the trial of Crippen (Donald Pleasence) in the Old Bailey. Flashbacks provide a look at the misery of Crippen’s marriage to the overbearing Belle (Coral Browne) – a failed music-hall performer with an eye for younger men – and how Crippen finds true love with his pretty young secretary, Ethel Le Neve (Samantha Eggar) – until events reach their dreadful climax.

    Belle delights in insulting and humiliating her husband, often in front of friends and acquaintances, and cuckolds him with their lodgers and with her music-hall colleagues. Despite her own infidelities, she is offended by her husband’s affair with Ethel and by the fact that he no longer wishes to sleep with her.

    That Crippen caused his wife’s death, there is little doubt, but the movie wonders: Was it a deliberate act? At the end of the film, Crippen claims that he did not intend to kill Belle but accidentally gave her an overdose of a sedative he was using (without her knowledge or consent) to calm her aggressive nature.

    Similar claims have been made on behalf of the real Dr Crippen by commentators on the case, but he never raised this claim at the trial.

    Dr Crippen
    Donald Pleasence
    Ethel Le Neve
    Samantha Eggar
    Belle Elmore
    Coral Browne
    R.D. Muir
    Donald Wolfit
    Captain McKenzie
    James Robertson Justice
    Inspector Dew
    John Arnatt
    Bruce Martin
    Paul Carpenter
    Lord Chief Justice
    Oliver Johnston
    Harry
    John Lee
    Mrs Arditti
    Olga Lindo
    Mrs Jackson
    Elspeth March
    Tobin
    Geoffrey Toone
    The Governor
    Edward Underdown
    Dr Pepper
    Douglas Bradley-Smith
    Dr Rogers
    Hamilton Dyce

    Director
    Robert Lynn

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