This must be both one of Jean Gabin's and Ida Lupino's best films, although Thomas Mitchell's acting also is better than ever, for once not entirely sympathetic but rather tragically pathetic, and even Claude Rains plays a very unusual part for his qualifications - he stands out as the most mysterious character in this off hand fishing village drama of California, where there is nothing else to do but to work and drink, and you are usually out of work. It's a very Frank Borzage kind of setting and intrigue, which makes it only the more precious for its marvellous direction - Fritz Lang was part of it, and not only Archie Mayo. Ida Lupino enters as a suicide and goes through a marvellous transformation during the course of worrying events, ending up in almost an accidental murder case. You never get to know how Pop Kelly really was murdered or by whom, since everybody involved in the probably accidental murder must have been more than just drunk, and nothing is ever proved, although Ida could be right in her final conclusions. The one who should know everything and probably does is Nutsy (Claude Rains), who keeps sympathetically quiet about it. But it is Jean Gabin's film above all, superbly seconded by Ida Lupino at her very best. The whole film is worth watching just for his entrance.