Dr. Crippen Reviews

It's hard to believe a man's claims that he accidentally murdered his wife when the cause of death was an overdose of tranquilizers slipped into her tea--especially when there is a mistress waiting in the wings and she happens to be as tempting as Eggar. That's what this picture expects us to think about this celebrated 1910 murder case. Pleasence, as Dr. Crippen, and Eggar flee to Canada after the wife's death, but the police continue to investigate and find the wife's body in the cellar, where her husband had buried her. Caught and returned to London for trial, he is sentenced to death, still protesting his innocence, while Eggar is acquitted. A lot of implausibilities in this one, calling for a great deal of suspension of belief, but it is historically true.