The Accused

William Dieterle’s The Accused is one of a small handful of noirs featuring a highly educated female lead, in this case a college professor whose male colleague compliments her by saying “Your brains don’t show a bit.” Narrated in her own anxious voice-over, Loretta Young plays Dr. Wilma Tuttle, whose juvenile delinquent student Bill Perry (Douglas Dick) lures her to a remote setting and sexually assaults her; Bill’s confidence in his own charm (“Don’t pretend you don’t like it”) enrages Wilma to the point of murder by tire iron. The rest of the film follows Wilma and her guilt through a police investigation led by Lt. Ted Dorgan (Wendell Corey) and a budding love affair with Perry’s guardian Warren Ford (Robert Cummings) who, in one very romantic scene, kisses Wilma till she falls asleep on a chaise. The screenplay has some problems with pacing and development, particularly a trance-forced revelation during a boxing match, but The Accused is otherwise a well-made, entertaining example of the cycle.