She's a tramp married to a violent older man, He's an employee of that very jealous husband who knows she's a tramp but can't prove it. They are desperate to escape her miserable existence, but she's reluctant to leave the financial support she gets behind. So while they are hiding out in lover's lane, they overhear the plot to rob a house while the owners are out of town. So she suggests that they rob the robbers and go on the run, and he becomes the total sap and agrees. But things don't always go as planned, and gunshots go off, turning their plot upside down and leaving somebody presumably dead.
Carol Ohmart is the seductive young wife with James Gregory ("The Manchurian Candidate") as her husband who is determined to help employee Tom Tryon move ahead in his real estate business, unaware that he's helped himself to Gregory's hearth and home already. The heat between the two lovers is undeniable, and Ohmart isn't without some heart. Of course, Tryon is totally suckered into her schemes, and witnessing the violence that Gregory inflicts on his wife, it's difficult not to blame Ohmart for plotting against him. Jody Lawrence displays vulnerability as Gregory's secretary, giving her all in a scene where Tryon walks into hear her taking dictation from a tape-recorder of the dead man. Later, Tryon finds out that his boss was onto him, and now he must really figure out how he's going to get out of this mess.
The wonderful Elaine Stritch is an instant scene-stealer as Ohmart's old burlesque girlfriend, singing a bit of "When I take my sugar to tea". Fresh from success on Broadway, this was Stritch's film debut, and even though her part has no bearing on the plot, she does get to provide not only an alibi to Ohmart but good insight into her fun-loving character as well. "General Hospital's" very first Edward Quartermain (David Lewis) is present as the mastermind behind the home break-in, while E.G. Marshall is the law enforcement officer put in charge of the investigation. "This is one for T.V.", Marshall comments, realizing that the case he's on (which appears to be suicide since Gregory was killed by his own gun) is more convoluted than anything on "Perry Mason" or "Dragnet".
A nice little sleeper of a film noir (late in the genre), this isn't anything we haven't seen before ("Double Indemnity", "Decoy", "Out of the Past" cover pretty much the same territory), but it is extremely well crafted. This shows how people who get involved in these types of situations crack under the pressure of not knowing what's going on in the minds of everybody else around them and how they pretty much do themselves in through just the emotion of guilt and paranoia. Director Michael Curtiz makes this speed along like a cross-country train where the only thing waiting at the end of the line is retribution and justice.
Carol Ohmart is the seductive young wife with James Gregory ("The Manchurian Candidate") as her husband who is determined to help employee Tom Tryon move ahead in his real estate business, unaware that he's helped himself to Gregory's hearth and home already. The heat between the two lovers is undeniable, and Ohmart isn't without some heart. Of course, Tryon is totally suckered into her schemes, and witnessing the violence that Gregory inflicts on his wife, it's difficult not to blame Ohmart for plotting against him. Jody Lawrence displays vulnerability as Gregory's secretary, giving her all in a scene where Tryon walks into hear her taking dictation from a tape-recorder of the dead man. Later, Tryon finds out that his boss was onto him, and now he must really figure out how he's going to get out of this mess.
The wonderful Elaine Stritch is an instant scene-stealer as Ohmart's old burlesque girlfriend, singing a bit of "When I take my sugar to tea". Fresh from success on Broadway, this was Stritch's film debut, and even though her part has no bearing on the plot, she does get to provide not only an alibi to Ohmart but good insight into her fun-loving character as well. "General Hospital's" very first Edward Quartermain (David Lewis) is present as the mastermind behind the home break-in, while E.G. Marshall is the law enforcement officer put in charge of the investigation. "This is one for T.V.", Marshall comments, realizing that the case he's on (which appears to be suicide since Gregory was killed by his own gun) is more convoluted than anything on "Perry Mason" or "Dragnet".
A nice little sleeper of a film noir (late in the genre), this isn't anything we haven't seen before ("Double Indemnity", "Decoy", "Out of the Past" cover pretty much the same territory), but it is extremely well crafted. This shows how people who get involved in these types of situations crack under the pressure of not knowing what's going on in the minds of everybody else around them and how they pretty much do themselves in through just the emotion of guilt and paranoia. Director Michael Curtiz makes this speed along like a cross-country train where the only thing waiting at the end of the line is retribution and justice.