Early directing duty for Richard Fleischer buries a couple of good ideas in a minor (and mild) serial killer police procedural, with noir trimmings. William Lundigan shows off a great head of hair and too pleasant a manner as the detective running the case; he’s also got a lame groupie in Dorothy Patrick’s irritating reporter. A neat gimmick (maybe from Anthony Mann in a rare story credit) has rain storms acting as trigger for the murders, and a faceless dummy dressed to look like the murderer from behind(!) to aid in witness identification. This should get a ‘bad’ laugh every time, but it's surprisingly effective and sets up a weird scene with Lundigan chatting up his dummy before going home. That’s when this ‘dummy’ stands up, places the ‘real’ mannequin back in the chair, then sneaks out. Alas, no follow up to this creep out; instead, standard issue police work until they pick up a trail and a late flurry of action that leads to a well-handled chase thru a factory to bring everything to a head. It’s all very . . . meh. Mann had already been directing for a while, with two exceptional pics of his own in ‘49 (REIGN OF TERROR; BORDER INCIDENT), while Fleischer would soon make some striking B-pics (see NARROW MARGIN/’52) before moving up to the A-list. And not for the better.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: See alternate titles listed above and covered below.
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