Basil Rathbone is absolutely incredible in this early Britsh psychological thriller. In a role right at the start of his film career, he gives the definitive performance as a demented mad man posing as a romantic gentleman. He romances young woman with money only to kill them later and take their riches for himself. He lures and marries a young lottery winner but slowly the dementia takes him over once more. However the money isn't the aim, it's the thrill of the hunt, the planning and chase of the murder.
Rathbone in the film has been disturbed since childhood where his fascination for clocks took on a perverse kind of delight and later in the First World War where the terror became a kind of ecstasy to him. He plays music, faster and faster, whirling around as his mind is aflame, the film providing a lustful, delerious madness in these scenes as he loses control and gives reign to his insanity. From sophisticated man he gradually descends as the madness enthralls him once more, his brain reeling with the frenzy to come. Rathbone displays all of this amazingly, you literally cannot look away from his astoundingly demented performance.
The direction builds up to a brilliant conclusion with cat and mouse verbal exchanges as his wife realises who he is and bluffs him to a crescendo of death. To give away too much would weaken the shocking end scenes but they twist the story in a new way and thankfully there isn't a romantic ending or moral message to undermine the drama. Ann Hardin is also fantastic as the wife, you really believe her descent into terror and this is heightened by the excellent, suspense filled direction by Rowland V Lee. The film is hardly ever mentioned yet rates as a classic, all the more for being rare British film from the time. The later film "The Stepfather" to a large extent copies this film as do many others. However don't miss this film and the spine chilling, utterly lunatic Rathbone. 10/10.
Special Thanks to Mark Coyle for this Movie Review.