****SPOILERS****It's when both not still out of her teens 19 year old Paula Haller played by 25 year old and looking much older actress Lizabeth Scott meets by the rickety old bridge gambler Eddie Bendix, John Hodiak,sparks start to fly in all the wrong directions. It seems that young Paula is a dead ringer for Eddie's late wife Angela who was killed in an accident two years ago at that very same bridge when her car was forced off the road! And the person responsible for that tragedy was Eddie Bendix himself! We get to see Paula's mom Fritzi, Mary Astor, who runs the town of Chuckwalla Nevada's casino furious at the sight of her daughter being in town instead of collage which she had dropped out of.This leads to tension between mother & daughter that in the end erupts to a fever pitch.With the now in love with Paula Eddie eloping with Paula to Las Vages that in fact ends , to everyone in the cast, in disaster.
To round things out there's former rodeo rider now deputy sheriff "Handsom Tom" Hanson, Burt Lancaster, who's got his eye on Paula as well as his suspicions about Eddie whom he feels drove his wife Angela off the road two years ago killing her. It's in fact Eddie's friend Johnny who pulling the strings in all this which by manipulating the confused, about his sexuality, Eddie to stay with him at all costs and not get involved with anyone, man or woman, else. It was Johnny who had Eddie kill his wife by forcing her off the road and now plans to have him do the same thing with Paula! That in order for him-very possibly a closet gay-to have Eddie all to himself!
***SPOILERS*** Strange for a movie in 1947 to have all these hidden subplots that at the time confused many of those in the audience watching it. It was Eddie break with Johnny that lead to the eruption of violence that happened at the end of the movie. Johnny got gunned down by Eddie and he later shared the very same fate that his wife did which opened the door for "Handsom Tom" Hanson to walk off into the sunset with Paula who realized that he , not Eddie, was the man for her!
To round things out there's former rodeo rider now deputy sheriff "Handsom Tom" Hanson, Burt Lancaster, who's got his eye on Paula as well as his suspicions about Eddie whom he feels drove his wife Angela off the road two years ago killing her. It's in fact Eddie's friend Johnny who pulling the strings in all this which by manipulating the confused, about his sexuality, Eddie to stay with him at all costs and not get involved with anyone, man or woman, else. It was Johnny who had Eddie kill his wife by forcing her off the road and now plans to have him do the same thing with Paula! That in order for him-very possibly a closet gay-to have Eddie all to himself!
***SPOILERS*** Strange for a movie in 1947 to have all these hidden subplots that at the time confused many of those in the audience watching it. It was Eddie break with Johnny that lead to the eruption of violence that happened at the end of the movie. Johnny got gunned down by Eddie and he later shared the very same fate that his wife did which opened the door for "Handsom Tom" Hanson to walk off into the sunset with Paula who realized that he , not Eddie, was the man for her!