 His range was wide".Laughton played a cowardly schoolmaster in occupied France in "This Land is Mine" (1943), by Jean Renoir, in which he engaged himself most actively; in fact, while Renoir was still working on an early script, Laughton would talk about Alphonse Daudet's story "The Last Lesson", which suggested to Renoir a relevant scene for the film.Laughton played a henpecked husband who eventually murders his wife in "The Suspect" (1944), directed by Robert Siodmak, who would become a good friend.