The bit actors with two lines speak like zombies. The score is intermittent and overwrought. The plot is set in motion by a voice-over, and then stupidly recapitulated by actors. Yet this movie is a tough film noir about how ex-shoplifter June Havoc gets dragged down by cheap, chiseling, womanizer Cesar Romero, and it works because he is such a dull, cheap thug, living off little people who hope for something decent and nice. He sucks them dry and throws them away and walks off, thinking he's smart because he only plays the sure thing.
Producer-Director W. Lee Wilder (brother of Billy Wilder) clearly did everything in this production to make it as cheaply as possible, but the three leading actors (Havoc, Romero and Marie McDonald) and the script are good enough to overcome him. Fans of old movies will be pleased to see perpetual dumb cop Fred Kelsey as a desk sergeant.
Producer-Director W. Lee Wilder (brother of Billy Wilder) clearly did everything in this production to make it as cheaply as possible, but the three leading actors (Havoc, Romero and Marie McDonald) and the script are good enough to overcome him. Fans of old movies will be pleased to see perpetual dumb cop Fred Kelsey as a desk sergeant.