Once a count or two away from being Heavyweight Champion, now a cabby with a damaged eye & a dissatisfied wife. It's John Payne in tough-guy mode, about to fall for a couple of scams that might take him out for good. One’s small & nasty: a sweetheart/actress pal (Evelyn Keyes) using him as a tool to get an acting job; the other’s even worse, with his slutty wife setting herself up for a permanent getaway with a violent jewel thief. But then, both plans blow up in everyone’s face, and Payne goes on the lam to try & untangle the multiple mess before he lands in jail . . . or gets dropped off a pier! Made in the wake of KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL/’52, Payne & director Phil Karlson lay on loads of glistening noir flavor (with what looks like a very tight budget) thanks to a major assist from lenser Franz Planer. (The dockside finale an exceptional display of trick matte effects.) But this second pairing for Karlson & Payne dials up all the acting & plot turns to ‘eleven,’ pushing the envelope past extreme. Just how much of this are we supposed to swallow? Then, about halfway in, the cast & crew seem to notice just how batty it all is and the film makes nodding acquaintance of its own absurdist noir sensibility, turning the corner from ridiculous to ridiculous fun. So, hang in there, and enjoy!
DOUBLE-BILL: Edward Dmytryk & Dick Powell made a similar escalation, upping the ante from the relatively straight MURDER, MY SWEET/’44 to the slightly delirious CORNERED/’45.
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