Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Payment Deferred

Play trailer Poster for Payment Deferred 1932 1h 21m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
Tomatometer 2 Reviews 87% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
Bank employee William Marble (Charles Laughton) risks losing his job if he can't pay off his massive debts. When William's wealthy nephew, James, visits, William repeatedly attempts to borrow money. After James turns him down every time, William poisons him. He then invests James' money and becomes rich enough to retire, but the guilt of his actions weighs on him. Sending his wife (Maureen O'Sullivan) and daughter away on vacation does not help, as he begins an affair that further traps him.

Critics Reviews

View All (2) Critics Reviews
Pare Lorentz Vanity Fair While the film suffers in translation into its new medium, it is a good one-man show, in which Charles Laughton is that superlative one man. May 21, 2019 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews A solid theatrical crime drama. Rated: B Jul 4, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (5) audience reviews
ashley h Payment Deferred is a decent film. It is about a man who poisons his nephew out of desperation for money. Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara give good performances. The screenplay is a little slow in places. Lothar Mendes did an alright job directing this movie. I liked this motion picture because of the drama. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Woeful, dull mystery suspense film from the 1930's. Forgotten for sadly all the good reasons. Charles Laughton's character is being layed off from the bank, which depresses him and causes him, for whatever reason, to attempt to kill a relative (Ray Milland) through an alcoholic drink laced with poison (unsure what it could be and I don't think its cyanide). He doesn't drink the poison and Laughton gets mad and spills his own drink. Then it skips to the next scene. Viewers discover in the next couple minutes Laughton kills Milland's character and he goes nuts. In addition, viewers discover a huge plot hole because his death was unexpected and we don't how what he did to kill him, and by the end of it, we don't care. This film is useless and Laughton looks embarrassed. Too bad. I thought I could make a big deal of unpopular movie. Sadly, not here. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Charles Laughton delivers yet another powerful performance in a very well written story. Ray Milland is great in an early supporting role. Nice cimetography and a great pace. It?s a bit melodramatic at times but it was always interesting thanks to Laughton. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Great murder story where the villain gets what he deserves but i still sympathize with him. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member good stuff sad though & no actor delivers the pathos better than laughton think hunchback of notre dame Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Payment Deferred

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Bank employee William Marble (Charles Laughton) risks losing his job if he can't pay off his massive debts. When William's wealthy nephew, James, visits, William repeatedly attempts to borrow money. After James turns him down every time, William poisons him. He then invests James' money and becomes rich enough to retire, but the guilt of his actions weighs on him. Sending his wife (Maureen O'Sullivan) and daughter away on vacation does not help, as he begins an affair that further traps him.
Director
Lothar Mendes
Screenwriter
Ernest Vajda, Claudine West
Production Co
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 21m