Optimum ***

DR CRIPPEN was hanged for poisoning his wife in 1910. But he'd most likely have got away with it if it hadn't been for that pesky Marconi!

Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve - rather unconvincingly disguised as a boy - were heading for a new life in America but were collared when the captain used his new-fangled wireless set to alert the authorities to his suspicions.

This black-and-white film from 1962 takes a sympathetic, even-handed line, suggesting that the meek-mannered medic may well not have had murder in mind after all. Donald Pleasance is effective as Crippen and his love for Ethel - a sexy yet demure Samantha Eggar - is touchingly conveyed.