Dennis O'Keefe is an insurance investigator, heading out to a small town like the one he grew up in. A local citizen with an insurance policy from his company has committed suicide, so he needs to investigate. Sheriff William Bendix doesn't seem to be particularly helpful, and neither are any of the citizens. O'Keefe comes suspect murder, but no one seems interested, not even the heirs, even when told that a murder will trigger doble indemnity. O'Keefe continues to poke around, helped by pretty local girl Barbara Britton; as the investigation goes forward, and he comes to suspect her father, Art Baker, even she begins to ask him to call off the search for a killer.
Although there's a mystery at the heart of this movie, it's more a consideration of small-town clannishness and dislike of outsiders, a sense, perhaps, of the growing gap between old, semi-rural America and big-city values and their mutual distrust. Under the direction of old hand Alfred Green, the performances and images are fine, but it feels incomplete to me, its ending perhaps too gracious for the themes raised. Perhaps that was the intention, but it lacks that sense of the restoration of normalcy with the solution of the mystery and the bringing of the killer to justice that is at the heart of every murder mystery.
Although there's a mystery at the heart of this movie, it's more a consideration of small-town clannishness and dislike of outsiders, a sense, perhaps, of the growing gap between old, semi-rural America and big-city values and their mutual distrust. Under the direction of old hand Alfred Green, the performances and images are fine, but it feels incomplete to me, its ending perhaps too gracious for the themes raised. Perhaps that was the intention, but it lacks that sense of the restoration of normalcy with the solution of the mystery and the bringing of the killer to justice that is at the heart of every murder mystery.