The twist on what we now call sexual harassment lingers as the most interesting aspect of The Accused, an innocuous suspense story with some effective moments. Another lingering aftertaste is the midcentury stereotype of the female academic that's foisted on star Loretta Young -- and the viewer.

Psychology professor Young (!),guarded and old-maidish (she's even saddled with the glamourproof name Wilma Tuttle),becomes the object of the unhealthy attentions of one of her students (Douglas Dick). On the pretext of diving for abalone shells off Malibu, he spirits her off to a secluded lover's lane one night and forces himself on her. She bashes in his skull and fakes his death to look accidental.

Then she begins to attract more attention -- from Robert Cummings, a lawyer friend of the dead boy's family (he falls for her),and Wendell Corey, a dogged homicide cop. In the acting department, there's no contest; Cummings stays his usual namby-pamby self, while Corey delivers a strong, unsentimental performance, among his best.

Much of William Dieterle's direction shows a practiced hand. Especially well handled are the opening sequence of Young fleeing the crime scene, a boxing match where she suffers a flashback, and the ghoulish reconstructions of the murder by forensic pathologist Sam Jaffe.

But a glaring structural flaw keeps The Accused lukewarm. We know from the outset that Young acted in self-defense, which pretty well leeches all the suspense out of Corey's implacable pursuit; the tightening case against her packs no impact because it's safe to assume she won't be spending any time with those harpies from Caged. Consequently the film focuses more on her emergence from a cocoon of droopy skirts, a bun in her hair, sleeping pills and swooning spells into a seductive butterfly flitting into Cummings' net.

Dick, as the young narcissist, calls to mind such amoral charmers as Robert Walker in Strangers On A Train and John Dall in Rope (a film in which Dick also appeared). It's he -- not young nor Cummings -- who supplies what faint erotic spark this movie, about a sexually-based murder, dares to kindle.

THE ACCUSED - 1949

Loretta Young, Bob Cummings, Wendell Corey and Sam Jaffe headline this rather dated noir.

Psychology professor Young has a student who is a bit on the forward side. He is always pushing his attentions on Miss Young. Young finds this a bit on the awkward side and suggests he cool it.

The young man, Douglas Dick, agrees to behave himself. After class, he offers Young a ride home after seeing she missed her bus. Young accepts but the ride goes nowhere near her place. They end up out on a secluded seaside lover's lane. There Dick becomes rather forceful with his advances. While fighting him off, Young bashes in his head with a handy iron bar. She then makes it look like an accidental death by dumping Dick off a cliff.

Soon everyone seems to be knocking on her door, starting with Bob Cummings. Cumming is a lawyer who works for the dead man's family. Cummings is just checking about Dick's grades etc with his instructors. Several days later the body is fished out of the water and a coroner's inquest held.

The death is ruled an accident which off course makes Young happy. Police Detective Wendell Corey is not quite so sure and decides to look deeper into the death. Young spends the rest of the picture trying to make sure she covered her tracks, as well as falling for Cummings. Cummings likewise takes a shine to Miss Young.

Hanging around being a pest is Detective Corey. He slowly puts together a collection of clues that start to point at Young. Nothing solid, but lots of little clues that keep the cop digging. Helping him in this is forensic expert Sam Jaffe.

To cut to the quick, Cummings also tumbles to Young being the killer. But he could care less as he is head over heels for her. Corey charges her and presents his case but knows it is going nowhere with a jury.

The film is good looking, but somewhat lacking in the suspense area. The basic story has worn rather thin since 1949. Young as the bookish teacher etc. is old hat now. We know she was only defending herself which eliminates the femme fatale angle.

Director William Dieterle did better work on his other film noir, ROPE OF SAND, DARK CITY and THE TURNING POINT. The film is still worth a look, but one is not likely to give it second viewing.

In The Accused, Loretta Young plays a psychology professor who kills an amorous male student in self-defense, then spends the rest of the movie covering up her crime. William Dieterle does an excellent job with the familiar material, and Miss Young gives a sympathetic performance. This is one of several crime pictures that Hal Walls produced in the late forties and early fifties, many of which fall into the noir category. Most of these films concern people with conflicted or tortured sexual urges, dysfunctional families, inadequate or just barely adequate men, with the women often hysterical or scheming. At the time this must have seemed daringly modern and contemporary. Now it just seems quaint, a waystation in the breakdown of small-town American values, with the action taking place in a netherworld between Andy Hardy and Tennessee Williams.

The movie is surprisingly sympathetic toward Miss Young, who, though on the cusp of middle age, still looks pretty damn beautiful. Robert Cummings is stronger than usual as her "suitor", while Wendell Corey is his inscrutably poker-faced self, as always, hinting between the lines, that had his character been better written he'd be more than up to the task. If this was so, I believe him. In a smaller role, Sam Jaffe is positively mephistopholean, delivering his lines as tartly as Corey, and in his lab scenes photographed to resemble a Dwight Frye hunchback from the thirties. A nice touch. The Accused is filled with nice touches, as Dieterle and most of his cast are much better than the script, breathing real life into it at times, which makes watching the movie a pleasure. There are no real surprises here, but lots of good scenes.