**SPOILERS** With his 15 hour tour at the San Francisco Hospital just ended Doctor Jeff Cameron, Robert Mitchum, was on his way home to get some very needed rest when he was summoned back to the emergency room to treat this unidentified young woman who was recovering from a suicide attempt. It turns out later in the movie that the young woman, who gives Dr. Cameron the name Margo, Faith Domergu,is actually related to and living with multi-millionaire Fedrick Lannigton, Cladue Rains, in his spacious estate outside the city.
Getting a telegram at the hospital to meet this mysterious Margo Dr. Cameron falls head over heels from the beautiful and alluring brunette and even goes so far as taking her out at a swanky restaurant that evening. Dr. Cameron does't realize that she's setting him up for the kill or for him to murdered her, as she calls him, abusive father Fredrick. Jeff At first thinking that Fredrick is actually Margo's father, like she told him, a love-sick Cameron is about to ask for his "daughters" hand in marriage. It's when he's told by a, what looks like, very amused Mr. Lannigton about Margo's relationship to him, she's actually his wife, he completely loses interest. That's when the sparks start to fly with Cameron ending up with a fractured skull and Mr. Frederick dead after Margo started to scream, when Jeff left the estate, making him think that Fredrick was beating her.
Recovering from his head injury that he received from a fireplace poker being smashed over his skull, by the late Mr. Lannigton, a very confused Dr. Cameron is persuaded by a hysterical Margo to check out of the country in order to avoid being arrested by the police for her husbands' murder. Cameron who had checked Frederck just moments before after he knocked him out, in self defense, against the fireplace and found him to be unconscious but very much alive! He's now shocked that he all of a sudden decide to check out, by dying, altogether. Jeff doesn't realize that Margo, who's the person who really murdered her husband, is using him to get her out of the country and into Mexico. It's there where she has a secret bank account that's untraceable to her as Mrs. Lannigton, by under her maiden name, that can put her on easy street for the rest of her life.
Robert Mitchums best film-noir movie since "Out of the Past" back in 1947 has playing Mitchum against type as the law abiding and conscientious Dr. Jeff Cameron instead of some anti-hero type who feels that the world and cards of life are stacked against him. Margo herself is not only a cold-blooded murderess but is also suffering from a severe case of paranoid schizophrenia and has become so unstable that even Cameron with his head broken and slowly losing his ability, with him on the brink of suffering a fatal cerebral hemorrhage, to think correctly notices it. Cameron is just too weak and hurt to do anything to help both himself as well as Margo by not only having her apprehended by the police but getting her treated for her mental illness. It's obvious from Margo's actions that she'll eventually end up, if taken alive, in a mental hospital not a state penitentiary.
Powerful ending with Cameron falling victim to Margo's insanity as he refuses to go along with her across the border into Mexico. Cameron Knows that she'll only leave him there to either rot or be arrested, by being expedited back to the USA, for a murder that he didn't commit; that Margo, who did murder Frederick by suffocating him, set him up for.
Getting a telegram at the hospital to meet this mysterious Margo Dr. Cameron falls head over heels from the beautiful and alluring brunette and even goes so far as taking her out at a swanky restaurant that evening. Dr. Cameron does't realize that she's setting him up for the kill or for him to murdered her, as she calls him, abusive father Fredrick. Jeff At first thinking that Fredrick is actually Margo's father, like she told him, a love-sick Cameron is about to ask for his "daughters" hand in marriage. It's when he's told by a, what looks like, very amused Mr. Lannigton about Margo's relationship to him, she's actually his wife, he completely loses interest. That's when the sparks start to fly with Cameron ending up with a fractured skull and Mr. Frederick dead after Margo started to scream, when Jeff left the estate, making him think that Fredrick was beating her.
Recovering from his head injury that he received from a fireplace poker being smashed over his skull, by the late Mr. Lannigton, a very confused Dr. Cameron is persuaded by a hysterical Margo to check out of the country in order to avoid being arrested by the police for her husbands' murder. Cameron who had checked Frederck just moments before after he knocked him out, in self defense, against the fireplace and found him to be unconscious but very much alive! He's now shocked that he all of a sudden decide to check out, by dying, altogether. Jeff doesn't realize that Margo, who's the person who really murdered her husband, is using him to get her out of the country and into Mexico. It's there where she has a secret bank account that's untraceable to her as Mrs. Lannigton, by under her maiden name, that can put her on easy street for the rest of her life.
Robert Mitchums best film-noir movie since "Out of the Past" back in 1947 has playing Mitchum against type as the law abiding and conscientious Dr. Jeff Cameron instead of some anti-hero type who feels that the world and cards of life are stacked against him. Margo herself is not only a cold-blooded murderess but is also suffering from a severe case of paranoid schizophrenia and has become so unstable that even Cameron with his head broken and slowly losing his ability, with him on the brink of suffering a fatal cerebral hemorrhage, to think correctly notices it. Cameron is just too weak and hurt to do anything to help both himself as well as Margo by not only having her apprehended by the police but getting her treated for her mental illness. It's obvious from Margo's actions that she'll eventually end up, if taken alive, in a mental hospital not a state penitentiary.
Powerful ending with Cameron falling victim to Margo's insanity as he refuses to go along with her across the border into Mexico. Cameron Knows that she'll only leave him there to either rot or be arrested, by being expedited back to the USA, for a murder that he didn't commit; that Margo, who did murder Frederick by suffocating him, set him up for.