Serving a life sentence committed to the Alcanta Hospital for the Criminal Insane, John Howard Barrington (John Ireland) breaks out and makes a run for it across ten miles of harsh desert. He finds refuge in the spare cabin of turkey farmer Ezra 'Cactus' Thompson (James Barton), and from there, Barrington's back story is revealed, while leaving it ambiguously unclear as to whether he actually strangled a former girlfriend with the scarf she was wearing. It's that search for the missing piece of his memory that leads Barrington on a trip to Los Angeles to seek out a hitchhiker he picked up one day while running errands for Thompson. I haven't seen Mercedes McCambridge in a lot of films, but of those I have, this is one in which she appears to be the most feminine, as opposed to Rock Hudson's manly sister in "Giant". She surprises with her gravel voice as well, as the lounge singer at Level Louie's (David Bauer) joint where Barrington eventually tracks her down.
Though the story does its best to keep Barrington's murder accusation circumspect, that idea starts to unravel when he visits psychologist David Dunbar (Emlyn Williams), a good enough acquaintance to have been present when the crime occurred. The picture gives it away at that point, but I had a little bit of trouble with the film's resolution. As Doctor Gordon (Lloyd Gough) presses Dunbar about the circumstances of the murder and gets him to admit his involvement, how is it the police would have had Barrington out of prison to accompany them on the mission to trap Dunbar? It made for the story's full circle closure, but just didn't seem to make sense.
Though the story does its best to keep Barrington's murder accusation circumspect, that idea starts to unravel when he visits psychologist David Dunbar (Emlyn Williams), a good enough acquaintance to have been present when the crime occurred. The picture gives it away at that point, but I had a little bit of trouble with the film's resolution. As Doctor Gordon (Lloyd Gough) presses Dunbar about the circumstances of the murder and gets him to admit his involvement, how is it the police would have had Barrington out of prison to accompany them on the mission to trap Dunbar? It made for the story's full circle closure, but just didn't seem to make sense.