Personally recruited by star/co-author Ida Lupino (she also co-owned the film company with ex-husband/co-author Collier Young), director Don Siegel, just off RIOT IN CELL BLOCK 11, had a perfectly miserable time working with an unfinished script and a vodka infused cast.* Decent enough as a corrupt cop drama, this one never fully inflates or engages. Steve Cochran’s the good cop who drifts bad when he skims 100 off of a 300 thou stash of stolen loot; and Howard Duff’s his partner, a family-man who only reluctantly goes along with the scam. (At the time, Duff was Lupino’s current husband.) The cop’s boss, Dean Jaggar, smells them out right away, but bides his time as Duff quickly drinks his way to oblivion and Cochran imagines running off with Lupino’s nightclub chanteusie who gave them the clue that led to all the cash. Siegel, with lenser Burnett Guffey, does some nice work toward the middle of the film, (tele)scoping out the racetrack for a lead, and in a smart, exciting car chase, but the rest of the film is an unsatisfying compromise between noir & ‘50s kitchen sink dramatics. Meh.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: See Siegel as master of the form in THE LINEUP/’58. OR: Try Lupino/Young on one of their issue-oriented releases, like THE BIGAMIST/’53 with Lupino co-starring & directing. OR: Listen to Lupino’s pipes in working order in ROAD HOUSE/’48.
READ ALL ABOUT IT: *Don Siegel’s pic-by-pic auto-bio, A SIEGEL FILM, tells the tale.
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