Carol Ohmart is married to James Gregory. That, certainly doesn't bode well. She's also carrying on a passionate affair with Tom Tryon. THey decide to steal a wealthy woman's jewelry and run away. When Gregory is killed, everything starts to unravel.
Michael Curtiz' movie looks like what might have happened had Douglas Sirk tried to make a film noir.It's set in the wealthier, newer parts of Los Angeles, where the sod hasn't been [;anted around the Danish Modern houses, I was surprised at how standard and derivative it was, with scenes that suggested Double Indemnity. Perhaps that's a matter of familiarity with Curtiz' post-Hungarian career; in his memoirs, Harry Carey Jr. writes of going to see John Ford movies with his father, who complains endlessly of shots and sequences reused from movies in the 1910s. Those movies are gone,unlike Curtiz' sources for this movie, so Ford's possible copying from his earlier work (which would make him an auteur) are not apparent to us.
What's most interesting to me,however, is the cast, including newcomers Tryon, Miss Ohmart, Nat King Cole singing one song, and Elaine Stritch, also in her first movie, playing Miss Ohmart's older-but-wiser friend. Also E.G. Marshall and Edward Binns as the cops on the case. It's all mechanically handled as the story of lust, betrayal and thievery comes apart efficiently. I don't think Curtiz could make a poor movie.
Michael Curtiz' movie looks like what might have happened had Douglas Sirk tried to make a film noir.It's set in the wealthier, newer parts of Los Angeles, where the sod hasn't been [;anted around the Danish Modern houses, I was surprised at how standard and derivative it was, with scenes that suggested Double Indemnity. Perhaps that's a matter of familiarity with Curtiz' post-Hungarian career; in his memoirs, Harry Carey Jr. writes of going to see John Ford movies with his father, who complains endlessly of shots and sequences reused from movies in the 1910s. Those movies are gone,unlike Curtiz' sources for this movie, so Ford's possible copying from his earlier work (which would make him an auteur) are not apparent to us.
What's most interesting to me,however, is the cast, including newcomers Tryon, Miss Ohmart, Nat King Cole singing one song, and Elaine Stritch, also in her first movie, playing Miss Ohmart's older-but-wiser friend. Also E.G. Marshall and Edward Binns as the cops on the case. It's all mechanically handled as the story of lust, betrayal and thievery comes apart efficiently. I don't think Curtiz could make a poor movie.