Dandy low-budget noir, extra twisty, with ‘borrowed’ elements from more expensive forerunners you might expect (DOUBLE INDEMNITY/’44; LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN/’45) and some you might not (RANDOM HARVEST/’42). Working for indie producer Harry Popkin, journeyman Jack-of-All-Genres Arthur Lubin gets tip-top perfs from Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Charles Coburn, Helen Walker, Anna May Wong & Mae Marsh in this murder-gone-wrong tale of unfaithful wife, duped husband, and the country lass who knows a good thing when she sees it. Or at least a good mechanic! Cinematographer Ernst Laszlo does well on some real small-town locations, and even better with some downright weird soundstage exteriors out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.* But what really sticks with you is the last act flip-flop murder indictments and the way Donlevy brings a touch of real anguish to the mix.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *One thing Laszlo didn’t get right was figuring out how best to shoot long-faced Ella Raines. And someone watching ‘dailies’ took note, changing her hair style four or five times over the course of the film. (I’ll make her look like Lauren Bacall if it kills me!) One particular horror rolls her hair into buns by each ear, like Carrie Fisher’s infamous STAR WARS ‘do.’
LINK: Available for years in the usual subfusc Public Domain options, there are now better choices on youtube. Here (while it lasts) is a pretty smooth one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu0pCB_gtgM
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