More noir, with this admirable low-budget effort giving plenty of entertainment even if it does run a good 15 minutes too long. Brian Donlevy stars as weak, yet rich, businessman Walter "Softy" Williams. His scheming femme fatale wife Irene (Helen Walker)is having an affair with a sleaze named Jim Torrance, and wants our "Softy" out of the way. So, in true "Postman Always Rings Twice" style Torrance plans to murder Softy on a dark, lonely highway one night. Only problem is that he screws the murder plan up. Softy cops a whack on the temple, yet is only concussed, and Torrance, making a hasty getaway, thinking he has killed him, drives straight into a truck. Softy escapes to a small Idaho town and finds solace in spunky, kind Marsha Peters (Ella Raines), yet his past eventually catches up with him.
It's very noir, despite the majority taking place not in the dark city streets but the well-lit Larkspur, the comforting All-American town of home-baked cherry pie and early morning fire drills. Helen Walker is at her diabolical best (also check her out in "Nightmare Alley") parading under her luxury apartment plotting her weak husband's murder, while Ella Raines is pretty, endearing and very modern as the small-town widow and mechanic who collides with Donlevy's life for the better. Donlevy's character is very weak, and the actor portrays this well. Even if Raines does refer to Donleby as "boss" in the film's happy conclusion, we get a feeling that she will wear the pants in the penthouse.
It's very noir, despite the majority taking place not in the dark city streets but the well-lit Larkspur, the comforting All-American town of home-baked cherry pie and early morning fire drills. Helen Walker is at her diabolical best (also check her out in "Nightmare Alley") parading under her luxury apartment plotting her weak husband's murder, while Ella Raines is pretty, endearing and very modern as the small-town widow and mechanic who collides with Donlevy's life for the better. Donlevy's character is very weak, and the actor portrays this well. Even if Raines does refer to Donleby as "boss" in the film's happy conclusion, we get a feeling that she will wear the pants in the penthouse.