UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Dorathen
Better Late Then Never
Motompa
Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.
clanciai
After "Laura" Otto Preminger took a step down to a slightly more shabby intrigue and environment. The joint in which Dana Andrews lands after his fall is not a place anyone would visit willingly and especially not for the sake of Linda Darnell. Her being the main attraction there for which all men become regulars is the worst possible recommendation for a common road house.Dana Andrews is the fallen angel who is thrown off a bus and lands in this miserable place, where he meets a sinister veteran police officer with some scarred experience, a pathetic owner and Linda Darnell. She hooks him, he goes mad about her and promises her anything, even venturing on criminal plans, finding two sisters with some fortune he could use, one of them being Alice Faye, a church organist, who falls in love with him to her sister's grest dismay. Her alarm is justified indeed. There it starts.It's a great story and perfect intrigue expertly handled, but what then is wrong here? There is only one flaw: Linda Darnell. She is terribly miscast and least of all convincing. How could any man fall for such a mean presumptuos creature, a shallow hooker without soul, and yet everyone seems to do just that, hopelessly and desperately.Dana Andrews' doubtful character is the main thriller of the film. No one knows anything about him, the audience least of all, he is a loser and maybe a criminal one, you can suspect all the worst about him, as Alice Faye's non-nonsense sister has every reason to do, and only gradually his real character comes into light, mainly in the great hotel scene in San Francisco, an even shabbier place than the road joint, clearly pointing out the direction of Hitchcock's "Vertigo" 14 years later. That long scene makes the film a masterpiece in spite of Linda Darnell.
Ian
(Flash Review)The protagonist, Eric, should enter politics as he can sweet talk anyone, make falsehoods quickly believable and be so persuasive and persistent that people go along with his desires. By chance Eric ends up in a small town and is short on money....an honesty. While attempting to pursue an attractive waitress, he concocts a plan to acquire a large financial sum and escape town with her and start a new chapter in his life. Eric later finds himself trying to tap dance out of his scheme as new wrenches are thrown into the mix. How many lies will he tell and how many people will he mislead? Will his ultimate scheme workout or will he be lucky to get out of town? This was a quality Film Noir that clipped along at a nice rate with a clever screen play and quality acting. Entertaining to see how the story plays out with amusing period dialog.
dierregi
A minor Preminger "noir" following the much superior "Laura". Dana Andrews is Eric, a drifter down on luck, stranded in a small town between Los Angeles and San Francisco. While planning a quick swindle to buy the ticket for San Francisco, Eric gets obsessed with local bad girl Stella (Linda Darnell).Stella is not the archetypal femme fatale because she is not "bad" enough. Although dishonest and greedy, she tries not to get involved with married men and wants only a decent home and husband. However, Darnell plays Stella as a femme fatale, with plenty of make up, tight clothes, attitude and all the boys in town drooling at her sight.Eric's plan to make a quick buck and marry Stella is to seduce and marry first the local rich spinster June, played by Alice Faye. Predictably, spinster June falls for the bad guy and they get married within a week. The plot twist is that Stella, tired of waiting decides to marry another suitor, but ends up dead. Follows the investigation, which should include all men in town. The main problem of the movie is that Eric's character is not very sympathetic - even for noir standards - and does not engage the audience with his passive attitude (as the much superior Swede did, in "The Killers"). June is also quite an annoying, passive-aggressive character. Finally, the small town atmosphere cannot compete with the usual big, dirty town background of classic noir.
vincentlynch-moonoi
Admittedly, I'm not a particular fan of film noir, and even as film noir goes, the first half of this film is a little disappointing. I'm glad I stuck with it, because I felt the second half of the film -- after Linda Darnell's character is murdered -- is better. Or is it just that I'm not a particular fan of Linda Darnell? I always found Dana Andrews to be an interesting actor, and it's unfortunate that his alcoholism led to him fading from the silver screen prematurely. He's very good here, even thought it's difficult to like his character. In fact, maybe that's what's wrong with the first half of the film -- it's not easy to like ANY of the leading characters! Linda Darnell plays her part as a loose woman...seems like she played that part well in more than just this pic. Very difficult to like her in this film.Alice Faye just seemed in the doldrums in the first half of the film, but once she marries Dana Andrews, she turns in a very good performance.Charles Bickford as the retired police detective (and ultimately the murderer) is good, though not outstanding here. The same can be said for the lesser roles by John Carradine and Bruce Cabot.Perhaps the most credit should go to -- surprisingly -- Percy Kilbride. I usually think of him as Pa Kettle, and while I didn't care for that series (after the original "The Egg And I"), he's was quite enjoyable in a number of films. But here, he really shines as a more serious actor, and for a time I was suspecting he was the killer.This film is worth watching, but you do have to stick with it for a while. It won't end up on my DVD shelf, but it was worth watching...once.
