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Jul 09, 2018Nursebob rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
With a plot as believable as a cheap dime store novel and melodramatic performances all around, this 50’s potboiler would be laughed out of the theatres were it were released today. But it wasn’t, thank goodness, and there remains an earnestness to Fritz Lang’s magnificent direction which takes the lean dark streets of Los Angeles and turns them into an alternate reality of suspicious glances and fogbound paranoia using long tracking shots and shaded close-ups. Baxter’s hysterics are credible and she can turn them on and off with the flick of a switch as she goes from gullible doormat to California’s Most Wanted in a swirl of platinum curls and addled wits. Helping her out are Richard Conte as a crusading reporter eager to get the true story before the police do, a perpetually smirking George “Superman” Reeves as the cynical detective determined to find the killer, and Ann Sothern and Jeff Donnell as Norah’s roommates—one a kooky airhead addicted to crime novels, the other a pragmatic divorcée with a knack for finding a few clues on her own. Even the late great Nat king Cole makes a cameo crooning the film’s theme song. It’s all pretty ludicrous when you take the time to think it out and the “big reveal” at the end is practically handed to you ten minutes after the film begins, but over sixty years later it’s still a lot of fun to watch. Think of it as Film Noir Lite with a side of corn.