A bit of career whiplash for stately Ruth Roman who went directly from Alfred Hitchcock’s lux STRANGERS ON A TRAIN/’51 to this modest film noir. Fortunately, it’s a good one, or is for the first half. Steve Cochran actually gets the most screen time as a hard luck con fresh out of prison after serving 18 years, slapped with a murder conviction when he was just 13. Now a stranger in a strange land, he's a social naïf who moons over Roman’s Dime--A -Dance gal only to run into an over-protective cop back at her flat. Cochran is knocked out in a scuffle; the dick gets shot in a tussle with Roman. When Cochran comes to, she lets him think he’s responsible and the odd couple hit the road. All this is neatly handled by hack megger Felix Feist (the dance hall scene is a pip with a loud one-minute buzzer to keep the dances short). But he sure likes to spy on action thru windows. The real trouble comes after the couple is forced together by circumstance, and then start to show genuine affection. Roman rarely connected with anyone on screen, using & abusing more her nature, a chill Hitchcock found useful in STRANGERS, but which leaves Cochran playing alone once they hide out as married crop pickers in California. The story mechanics are fine (friendly neighbors spot Cochran but are hesitant to turn him in), but the missing chemistry between Roman & Cochran rob the film of romance & suspense.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Hitchcock had a new cinematographer on STRANGERS, Robert Burks, who came along with Roman. Compared to what Hitch asked of him, this assignment must have seemed a piece of cake.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The most alarming image in here may be Ruth Roman’s shock of platinum blonde hair in the early scenes. Talk about a mismatch.
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