It's a gang of high-class confidence artists run by Dan Duryea. With John Payne to keep the women happy, they hit on a plan to use him as the roper to steal $100,000 from wealthy Joan Caulfield, convincing her that he's a war buddy of her deceased husband. There are immediate complications when Duryea's girl friend, Shelley Winters, prefers Payne. Instead of flying to Havana, she follows Payne to a small suburban town where they're so wealthy they go slumming in Pasadena.
It's a dark movie from the get-go and everyone is good, but I found it depressing. I'm a fan of movies about con men, but it's handled with a depressive air from the beginning. Ambitious John Payne was trying to stretch himself, and the role is pretty good, but he's a bit monotonous in his role, as are most of the others. Dan O'Herlihy, as one of his confederates, has a few brief moments to shine and does so, but the movie, while always competent, turns into a soap opera with guns.
It's a dark movie from the get-go and everyone is good, but I found it depressing. I'm a fan of movies about con men, but it's handled with a depressive air from the beginning. Ambitious John Payne was trying to stretch himself, and the role is pretty good, but he's a bit monotonous in his role, as are most of the others. Dan O'Herlihy, as one of his confederates, has a few brief moments to shine and does so, but the movie, while always competent, turns into a soap opera with guns.