Verdict, The (Warner 1946, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre)

Director Don Siegel’s first feature The Verdict is a clever mystery featuring the last screen pairing of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Greenstreet retires from Scotland Yard after sending the wrong man to the gallows. His replacement as chief, Coulouris, boasts of his modern techniques, methods he gets to try when a baffling murder occurs. Greenstreet and his friend Lorre, a ghoulish illustrator, take a keen interest in the case. A neat twist at the end reveals the construction of the perfect crime.

Some of Don Siegel’s earliest work was for Warner Brothers as a montage specialist. His work includes The Roaring Twenties (1939), They Drive by Night (1940) and Casablanca (1942).

production details
USA | Warner / 86 minutes / 1946

Director: Don Siegel
Screenplay: Peter Milne
Original Story: Israel Zangwill
Producers: William Jacobs, Jack L. Warner
Director of Photography: Ernest Haller
Editor: Thomas Reilly
Composer: Frederick Hollander

cast
Sydney Greenstreet as Supt. George Edward Grodman
Peter Lorre as Victor Emmric
Joan Lorring as Lottie Rawson
George Coulouris as Supt. John R. Buckley
Rosalind Ivan as Mrs. Vicky Benson
Paul Cavanagh as Clive Russell
Arthur Shields as Rev. Holbrook
Morton Lowry as Arthur Kendall
Holmes Herbert as Sir William Dawson
Art Foster as PC Warren
Clyde Cook as Barney Cole