Tight & tough little ‘noir’ via Andre De Toth (the only one-eyed director to meg a classic 3-D pic, HOUSE OF WAX/’53) raises itself a couple of notches above the norm with lots of grabbed location shooting in some of the rougher areas of old L.A. Sterling Hayden comes close to parody as a toothpick-chewing dick who may be chasing a reformed convict into bad old ways, but his aura of blunt physical force is startling. The real surprise is musical-comedy hoofer Gene Nelson who’s a minor revelation as the parolee who finds himself unwillingly sucked back in to a life of crime. De Toth can’t quite sustain a heightened level of malice & tension right thru the inevitable botched bank-job, but there’s plenty here for any ‘noir’ fancier. Watch for Hank Worden in a neat little bit and a young, powerful Charles Bronson playing one of the unwelcome partners in crime.
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