Crime Without Passion

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Crime Without Passion

1934,

1h 12m,

Crime/

Drama

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Watchlist

100%

8 Reviews

Tomatometer

44%

50+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

100%

Tomatometer

8 Reviews

44%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry (Claude Rains) is going out with Katy Costello (Whitney Bourne), but carrying on an affair with dancer Carmen Brown (Margo). When he wants to end the dalliance with Carmen, she is so distraught that she becomes suicidal. Seizing the gun from Carmen, he accidentally shoots her, and thinking she's dead, concocts a series of increasingly outlandish alibis to cover his tracks under the guidance of a ghostly apparition that is his alter ego.

Otis Ferguson

The New Republic

Jan 23, 2024

What makes it interesting is that the authors have brought wit and wisdom to a medium rather deficient in the latter at least, that there is a meaning to some of the situations and an edge to some of the dialogue not found in the usual run of scripts.

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Variety Staff

Variety

Feb 23, 2012

Claude Rains, an expert actor, plays the lawyer with much intelligence.

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Rollin Palmer

Buffalo News

Jun 21, 2022

It is a superior picture, well out of the ruck, impressively acted by players whose names are mostly unknown.

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Paul Rotha

Cinema Quarterly

Feb 2, 2021

[Crime Without Passion] presents the Hecht-MacArthur writing team in the new role of producer-writers in an attempt, they tell us, to prove that good pictures can be made with a maximum of intelligence in a minimum of time and expense.

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Ann Ross

Maclean's Magazine

Jul 23, 2019

Murder from a slightly different angle. With Claude Rains. A handsome and dramatic, if slightly unpleasant, picture.

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Helen Brown Norden

Vanity Fair

Jun 11, 2019

Crime Without Passion is beautiful and exciting photography -- animated throughout by a direction which shows an intense flair for dramatic value, a definitely superior intelligence.

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Hermione W

Apr 23, 2018

Claude Rains is a slimy defense attorney known for his ability to get seemingly guilty clients off with outrageous tactics. He's dating nightclub performer Margo, who he wants to dump for his socialite girlfriend Whitney Bourne, who he truly loves. He sets up a meeting between Margo and her ex Stanley Ridges, and then uses it to accuse her on unfaithfulness. She confronts him, and he accidentally kills her. He uses his legal talents, manifested by a ghostly image of himself who he converses with, to construct an elaborate alibi for himself. This film was the directorial debut of writing team Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, although cinematographer Lee Garmes claimed he did most of the practical work of directing it. That's a plausible story since this is an a visually complex flick that opens with a really bravura sequence depicting the furies causing people to murder and suffer the consequences. Rains seems to really enjoy playing an unrepentant slime ball.

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Ben Hecht

Director

Charles MacArthur

Director

Claude Rains

Lee Gentry

Margo

Carmen Brown

Whitney Bourne

Katy Costello

Stanley Ridges

Eddie White

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Synopsis

Caddish lawyer Lee Gentry (Claude Rains) is going out with Katy Costello (Whitney Bourne), but carrying on an affair with dancer Carmen Brown (Margo). When he wants to end the dalliance with Carmen, she is so distraught that she becomes suicidal. Seizing the gun from Carmen, he accidentally shoots her, and thinking she's dead, concocts a series of increasingly outlandish alibis to cover his tracks under the guidance of a ghostly apparition that is his alter ego.

Director: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur
Production Co: Paramount
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 10, 2018
Runtime: 1h 12m

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