Dr Crippen (Robert Lynn, 1963) Donald Pleasence, Samantha Eggar, Coral Browne
The real-life story of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, who was hanged in London in 1910 for poisoning his wife so he could be with his young lover. But was he truly guilty of murder?
I watched the 1963 film Dr Crippen, only because my cousin Coral Browne is in it. Donald Pleasence plays the title character, inhabiting that liminal land of psychopathy he made his own – and he’s the hero: the sympathetic main character! (And he’s very good.) Coral’s character is the unsympathetic one: his wife, the real villain. All of the other actors in it are bad – so I guess we blame the director, Robert Lynn?
Garry Gillard | New: 12 March, 2017 | Now: 12 December, 2021