''Payment Deferred'' is a 1932 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

film, starring

Charles Laughton Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future w ...

as a man so desperate for money, he resorts to murder. It was based on the 1931 play of the same name by

Jeffrey Dell John Edward Flowers "Jeffrey" Dell (7 May 1899 – 24 February 1985) was a British writer, screenwriter, and film director. He is also remembered for his 1939 novel '' Nobody Ordered Wolves'', a satire on the British film industry. His other nov ...

, which was in turn based on the 1926 novel of the same name by C. S. Forester. Laughton also played the lead role in the play, which opened on Broadway on September 30, 1931 and ran for 70 performances.Internet Broadway Database
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Plot

London bank clerk William Marble (

) is deeply in debt. When his boss learns of a lawsuit for an overdue bill, he warns Marble that he will be dismissed if he cannot settle the matter quickly. Then, Marble is visited by a rich nephew whom he has not seen in many years, James Medland (

Ray Milland Ray Milland (born Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh-American actor and film director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985. He is remembered for his Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival Award-winning ...

). All night, Marble tries to borrow money from him, having received a financial tip that could solve all his financial troubles. An increasingly uncomfortable Medland is not interested. Driven to desperation, Marble offers him a glass of whisky laced with cyanide, and under cover of darkness buries his body in the back yard. With the dead man's money, Marble speculates

on margin In finance, margin is the collateral that a holder of a financial instrument has to deposit with a counterparty (most often their broker or an exchange) to cover some or all of the credit risk the holder poses for the counterparty. This risk ...

and makes £30,000, a large sum that enables him to retire. However, fear of his crime being discovered makes him consistently nervous and irritable. His wife Annie (

Dorothy Peterson Bergetta "Dorothy" Peterson (25 December 1897 - 3 October 1979) was an American actress. She began her acting career on Broadway before appearing in more than eighty Hollywood films. Early years Peterson was born in Hector, Minnesota, the dau ...

) knows something is wrong, but wrongly guesses he has

embezzled Embezzlement is a crime that consists of withholding assets for the purpose of conversion of such assets, by one or more persons to whom the assets were entrusted, either to be held or to be used for specific purposes. Embezzlement is a type ...

from the bank. To relieve his nervous tension, he sends Annie and their daughter Winnie (

Maureen O'Sullivan Maureen O'Sullivan (17 May 1911 – 23 June 1998) was an Irish-American actress, who played Jane in the ''Tarzan'' series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. She performed with such actors as Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo, William ...

) away on a three-week vacation. While they are gone, he has an affair with Madame Collins (

Verree Teasdale Verree Teasdale (March 15, 1903 – February 17, 1987) was an American actress born in Spokane, Washington. Early years A second cousin of Edith Wharton, Teasdale attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and trained as a stage actr ...

), a local shopowner. Winnie finds out when she returns a day early and discovers Collins in the house, but keeps quiet about it. Despite their new financial wealth, troubles continue to grow for the Marble family. When Annie sees a small advertisement in the newspaper asking for anyone who knows the whereabouts of Medland to contact a firm of solicitors, glances at the bottle of cyanide (originally bought by Marble for developing photographs), and one of his recently-acquired books about poison and its effects, she realises what her husband has done, but stands by him. Winnie becomes a bit of a snob, consorting with a higher social class of people and sneering at her parents. When she runs away one night, Annie chases after her in the rain and becomes very ill. However, under Marble's loving care, she begins to recover. Then Madame Collins shows up and blackmails Marble into giving her some money. Annie overhears and commits suicide with some of the same

cyanide Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms. In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...

used to kill Medland. Marble is convicted for her murder. When a tearful Winnie visits him in his cell on the day of his execution, he reassures her that he did not kill Annie, but says that he is nonetheless at peace with his fate. He is convinced he is paying a bill that was only deferred. In the original novel, William and Annie also have a son John, who does not appear in the play or film.

Cast

Box office

The film grossed a total (domestic and foreign) of $304,000: $169,000 from the US and Canada and $135,000 elsewhere resulting in a loss of $32,000.

Preservation status

On December 14, 2011,

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

aired a print of this film which restored the five cuts in the film made for the 1939 re-release to satisfy the

Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...

. Some local censorship boards had objected to the use of the word "cyanide" in its original 1932 release.

References

External links

* * * *
1946 ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' radio adaptation of original play
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

1949 ''Theatre Guild on the Air'' radio adaptation of original play
at

{{Lothar Mendes 1932 films American black-and-white films 1932 crime drama films American films based on plays Films set in England Films set in London Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films based on works by C. S. Forester American crime drama films 1930s American films