PAYMENT DEFERRED
US, 1932, 81 minutes. Black and white.
Charles Laughton, Maureen O’ Sullivan, Dorothy Peterson, Verree Teasdale, Ray Milland.
Directed by Lothar Mendes.
Payment Deferred is an early silent film, directed by Lothar Mendes who had come from Germany to the United States. It is based on a play by Jeffrey Dell. In fact, the film is very much stagebound, relying on scenes, relying on dialogue and performance.
Charles Laughton made this film before he won his Oscar for The Private Lives of Henry VIII and his continued success for another thirty years on stage and film. The film also stars Maureen O’ Sullivan who had come from Ireland and begun appearing in films in 1930. She was prolific, making many films a year at MGM throughout the 1930s. She was cast as Jane in Tarzan the Ape Man at this time and appeared in a number of films with Johnny Weismuller. Included in her repertoire at this time was a wide range of films including Tugboat Annie, The Voice of Bugle Ann, David Copperfield, Anna Karenina. She was to continue to appear in such films as Broadway Melody of 1938 and the 1941 Pride and Prejudice.
Dorothy Peterson is affecting as Charles Laughton’s wife while Verree Teasdale plays the French vamp. Ray Milland, in an early role, makes his mark as the cousin from Australia who is murdered.
Charles Laughton gives an eccentric performance as a seemingly reticent person, whose shadow side regularly emerges in verbal violence towards his wife and daughter. He is also involved in shady dealings at his bank. When a rich cousin from Australia arrives, he murders him, takes his money, lives extravagantly, also takes up with a woman across the street, who owns a shop and seduces Laughton in order to get some money. The film focuses on his edginess, his terror, his wife discovering the truth and taking poison – and his being executed for her death rather than for that of the Australian cousin.
The film begins with a tenant going to buy the house of the family and enquiring about the story – which appears in flashback, and puts a contradictory story to that told by the landlord who is blaming the wife. The audience sees the role of the husband.
1. Interesting drama of the 1930s? Based on a play? Stagebound? Opened up for the screen? Dialogue and performance?
2. Black and white photography, the London setting? Interiors, exteriors? The musical score?
3. The opening, the tenant, looking around the house, asking the questions, making the audience curious? The response from the landlord, claiming to be murder’s best friend?
4. The focus on William Marble, Charles Laughton and his appearance (large, rather ugly, aged thirty-two)? His work in the bank, his discussions with the authorities, his manipulating the money, the threat of the sack unless he repaid the money? His life at home, street meek and mild, violent at home? His love for his wife yet his treatment of her? His snapping at his daughter, yet his love for her? The ordinariness, dressing, going to work, meals? The desperation about money? The visit of James Medland, his hospitality, getting rid of the wife and daughter, putting the pressure on for money, Medland’s reaction? Marble killing him and burying him in the backyard? His continued edginess after this? Coming into the money, the extravagant spending for furnishings? Sending his wife and daughter away for a holiday? His decision to stay? Marguerite Collins and her arrival, intruding, the seduction, his falling, his deceit? Her asking for money? The sudden return of his wife and daughter? Deceiving his daughter, silencing her? The resumption of ordinary life? The daughter going away for a holiday, his wife becoming ill, his professing his faithfulness, Marguerite Collins arriving for more money, the wife overhearing, taking the poison? His wife knowing what he did, accepting it? His being blamed for his wife’s death? His daughter’s visit to him in prison? His accepting his fate? Payment deferred?
5. The portrait of the wife, devoted above all else to her husband, putting up with him? The concerns about money, paying the bills? Love for her daughter? Worried about her daughter’s snobbery? The holiday and enjoying it? Concern about her husband, his confession? Overhearing his talk with Marguerite Collins? Killing herself?
6. Winnie, young, snobbery? Money, reputation? The holiday? Her return, the friends, going to stay with them? The father telling his daughter off about her snobbery? Her mother’s concern? Her visit to her father in jail?
7. Marguerite Collins, the shop, French, femme fatale, the seduction, the blackmail?
8. James Medland, rich, urbane, the visit from Australia – and his fate?
9. The neighbours, the doctor and his concern about the wife and her illness, discovering the glass, the cyanide, the report to the police? The landlord and his claim of friendship?
10. A drama of the early 1930s – a mixture of sophistication in theme and lack of sophistication in film-making?
