A tough and unconventional private eye in Panama searches for a map revealing the location of a lucrative collection of oil fields after the courier carrying them for the oil company is thrown (or falls from) a plane. Pat O'Brien gives an unconvincing impersonation of Humphrey Bogart in a movie that surpasses it's B-movie roots while shamelessly ripping off the basic plot of The Maltese Falcon. Director Ted Tetzlaff draws on his experience as a cinematographer to create a wonderfully evocative Noir atmosphere., while Walter Slezak makes an enjoyably sinister - if largely ineffectual - villain. It's also probably the only movie in history to end with a dog's eye peering through a keyhole...
Review of Riffraff
