The Verdict (1946)

Directed by Don Siegel. Starring Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, George Coulouris, Joan Lorring, Paul Cavanagh, Rosalind Ivan, Arthur Shields, Holmes Herbert.

Recently-disgraced Scotland Yard superintendent Greenstreet competes against his replacement rival (Coulouris) to solve a locked-room murder mystery. The last of nine Sydney Greenstreet-Peter Lorre pairings (in just six years) isn’t one of their best, but it’s a decent whodunit elevated by a few fine performances and the high-contrast shadows of Ernest Haller’s photography. Lorre is unusually cast as a rascally pleasure-seeker, but the chemistry he shared with his co-star was never phoned-in. The solution is both surprising and unsatisfying, at least for those who demand a firm sense of logic for criminal conduct. After assembling several montages and shorts in 1940s Hollywood, Don Siegel makes his feature directing debut. Fans of Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes pictures will appreciate a good number of regulars from that series showing up here, including chief suspect Paul Cavanagh and Rosalind Ivan as the murder victim’s landlady.

62/100