As I watch Charles Russell in the lead role, I get the nagging feeling that I've seen him before, but I know I haven't. With a limited film career spanning six years, I begin to wonder if he could have gone on to bigger and better things if he hadn't been so one dimensional as he appears here. Then it hits me, the part could have just as well gone to someone like John Payne or Rory Calhoun, virtual Russell look-alikes who were on the way up around the same time who eventually wound up in classic TV Westerns (Payne in 'The Restless Gun' and Calhoun in 'The Texan').
As film noir, this one works pretty well if you get beyond some of the quirks in the plot. Russell's character, Harold Dunlap, seems hell bent on dispatching a young teenage witness (Dale Belding) to the inadvertent murder of his fiancée. The cover of night and out of the way location provide the perfect opportunity, but Dunlap misses the chance when the kid turns around and looks at him. Now I ask you, if you're determined to kill a kid with a crowbar, why would his seeing you make any difference?
The follow up to all this is that Dunlap and Mike the Kid play a game of second guessing each other's identity and real intentions, and Dunlap winds up looking like a sap by the time it's all over. In essence, he winds up being the most inept hoodlum ever, to the point where he doesn't even care if he gets caught or not. And by the way, is he blind? Mary Beth Hughes goes from coyly demure to smoking hot 'come on boy', and Dunlap just brushes her off. Now I know she was never meant for anything but trouble in this picture, so you think Dunlap would have obliged.
But even with the criticism, this was an interesting flick that had one of those neat hooks that happened to bookend the story. You should have seen the ending coming, and because you didn't, it didn't leave you feeling blind sided like the 1953 film "The Limping Man". Just don't get too caught up in the way the story arc progresses, or you'll wind up going loop-de-loop well after it's over.
As film noir, this one works pretty well if you get beyond some of the quirks in the plot. Russell's character, Harold Dunlap, seems hell bent on dispatching a young teenage witness (Dale Belding) to the inadvertent murder of his fiancée. The cover of night and out of the way location provide the perfect opportunity, but Dunlap misses the chance when the kid turns around and looks at him. Now I ask you, if you're determined to kill a kid with a crowbar, why would his seeing you make any difference?
The follow up to all this is that Dunlap and Mike the Kid play a game of second guessing each other's identity and real intentions, and Dunlap winds up looking like a sap by the time it's all over. In essence, he winds up being the most inept hoodlum ever, to the point where he doesn't even care if he gets caught or not. And by the way, is he blind? Mary Beth Hughes goes from coyly demure to smoking hot 'come on boy', and Dunlap just brushes her off. Now I know she was never meant for anything but trouble in this picture, so you think Dunlap would have obliged.
But even with the criticism, this was an interesting flick that had one of those neat hooks that happened to bookend the story. You should have seen the ending coming, and because you didn't, it didn't leave you feeling blind sided like the 1953 film "The Limping Man". Just don't get too caught up in the way the story arc progresses, or you'll wind up going loop-de-loop well after it's over.