What's a hardboiled dame like Audrey Totter doing in a small corrupt town like Vulcan City? With most of these characters, it should have been called Vulture City. Prize fighter Alex Nicol shows up looking for his missing manager, takes room and board with the kind Charles Winninger and Hope Emerson (who instantly takes to him like a son), becomes involved in the local rackets in order to find his manager and becomes involved with Totter who has her own score to settle with him.
With some obviously corrupt characters like Harry Morgan, Jesse White and Joseph Wiseman, there's plenty of intrigue, and a heartfelt performance by Celia Lovsky as the missing man's sister. This is one of the best film noir fans have probably never heard of, top notch with its hard-core dialogue and great direction by William A. Seiter. After "Caged", it's nice to see Emerson playing a gentle character, bombastic and loveable, and unaware of her husband Winninger's dishonest activities.
There's a lot of heat between Totter and Nicol as well, and the relationship is one of the most realistically presented love/hate trust/distrust, with the viewer kept guessing over Totter's sincerity. Nicol's a great dark anti-hero, one of the best since Tom Neal in "Detour". But the performance praise goes to Lovsky whose character really makes you feel sorry for her, kept in the dark by Nicol about what really happened to her brother. Brilliant, dark expose on small town rackets, reminding me of the cult noir "Phenix City Story".
With some obviously corrupt characters like Harry Morgan, Jesse White and Joseph Wiseman, there's plenty of intrigue, and a heartfelt performance by Celia Lovsky as the missing man's sister. This is one of the best film noir fans have probably never heard of, top notch with its hard-core dialogue and great direction by William A. Seiter. After "Caged", it's nice to see Emerson playing a gentle character, bombastic and loveable, and unaware of her husband Winninger's dishonest activities.
There's a lot of heat between Totter and Nicol as well, and the relationship is one of the most realistically presented love/hate trust/distrust, with the viewer kept guessing over Totter's sincerity. Nicol's a great dark anti-hero, one of the best since Tom Neal in "Detour". But the performance praise goes to Lovsky whose character really makes you feel sorry for her, kept in the dark by Nicol about what really happened to her brother. Brilliant, dark expose on small town rackets, reminding me of the cult noir "Phenix City Story".