Plot

A man is reunited with his childhood friend and her husband who believes he knows the truth about the death of her rich aunt years earlier.

Childhood friends Martha, Walter, and Sam share a terrible secret. Over time, the ambitious Martha and the pusillanimous Walter have married. She is a cold businesswoman; he is the district attorney: a perfect combination to dominate the corrupt city of Iverstown at will. But Sam's unexpected return after years of absence deeply disturbs the formidable couple.—yusufpiskin

Young Martha inadvertently causes the death of her cruel, authoritarian aunt. Martha lies to the cops, and Walter, who saw the crime, corroborates her story. Eventually, they wed out of convenience; the meek Walter is genuinely in love, and Martha thinks that her secret is safe.—yusufpiskin

The world cinema lost one of its most unheralded sirens in Lizabeth Scott, a film-noir goddess dubbed "The Threat" by Paramount's PR team. See her rub shoulders with Barbara Stanwyck and Kirk Douglas in this gem, which was nominated for Best Original Story at the Oscars.—yusufpiskin

In 1928, young heiress Martha Ivers (Barbara Stanwyck) fails to run off with friend Sam Masterson (Van Heflin), and is involved in fatal events. Years later, Sam returns to find Martha the power behind Iverstown and married to "good boy" Walter O'Neil (Kirk Douglas), now a District Attorney. At first, Sam is more interested in displaced blonde Toni Marachek (Lizabeth Scott) than in his boyhood friends, but they draw him into a convoluted web of plotting and cross-purposes.—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>