Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Alex da Silva Reporter Dennis O'Keefe (Mark) decides to investigate the death of a woman's sister who had recently given birth. He does this because he fancies her. God knows why. The lady in question is Gale Storm (Paula) and she's a wet fish. She is definitely not leading lady material. Anyway, this film is about tracking down a gang who deal in illegal adoptions. It's quite topical given some high profile children who have been snatched subsequent to this film. It's interesting to note just how long this criminal activity has been going on for in such an organized manner. Interesting topic, boring film.

Martin Teller A gal goes searching for her missing sister and uncovers an illegal baby trade ring. This is unique subject matter for noir, at least I can't recall having seen it before. The film is slightly too light-hearted in tone for the topic, but it's otherwise a pretty good flick. The dialogue is snappy and witty, the story unfolds at a good clip, and the cinematography is quite strong, especially during the more suspenseful scenes. Dennis O'Keefe isn't the most compelling leading man but he has a good stack of noir credits (Raw Deal, T-Men, Woman on the Run) and a sharp line delivery. This is my first experience with Gale Storm, who didn't really impress me but was definitely at least okay. Raymond Burr makes a memorable appearance as the shady private detective. And who do you get when you need someone to beat up Burr? The even more menacing Mike Mazurki, naturally. The score is quite good, too. Unfortunately there's some incredibly unnecessary narration to point out the blatantly obvious, but it's a minor flaw in a solid film.

robert-temple-1 This excellent thriller deals with the sale of stolen babies by baby broker racketeers. It is thus more relevant to today, when this problem is much more widespread, than it was in 1949. The plot is sound, the script first rate, and the acting is extremely good. It is interesting to see an early Jeff Chandler performance, in a supporting role, before his hair went prematurely white, and when he was so thin he looked like he needed a good meal. There is some crackling dialogue: 'I couldn't sleep, so I took my gun for a walk,' and 'The idea of you going straight is like a vulture becoming a vegetarian.' Raymond Burr, to whom the latter remark is addressed, is a heavy of suitably sour disposition. Dennis O'Keefe is an excellent clean-cut B hero, and Gale Storm is a rather sombre and expressionless 'good girl' from a small town who has come to the wicked city in search of her murdered sister and her stolen baby; she is convincing, though unexciting. A sinister sub-plot about the father of the two sisters making his daughter get rid of her illegitimate baby seems to have been cut because it was too shocking, but enough of it survives to show that it was clearly once there. Maybe the producers thought they had enough of a social message without getting that grim and frightening their audiences further. The sale of stolen babies was an issue that needed raising, and it was thoroughly portrayed in this film well ahead of its time. The director, Joseph Newman, did an excellent job, and at one point showed off by cutting from a match being struck by one character to a lit match being used by another character. Every thriller director is entitled to at least one arty moment, especially if it hypes the pace of the action, though this was probably in the script by Irwin Gielgud. Probably the few good one-liners constituted the 'extra dialogue' by William Bowers.

secragt Okay, Dennis Okeefe and Gale Storm deliver competent performances and Marjorie Rambeau is effective as the matronly but menacing madam baby broker, but this movie is surely most memorable as the sole instance in which a young Raymond Burr (merely stout here, but still not thin) gets the s$#@ kicked out of him, which alone makes it worth the price of admission. Painfully corny narrative framing sequence at the beginning and the end (where there is a big unintentional laugh), but by and large a straightforward and enjoyable minor noir. At times a bit preachy perhaps and hardly a masterpiece but worth a look when it pops up on TCM late night.