Well Deserved Praise

ridiculous rating

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is another Film whose Basic Plot and Characters Fit Neatly in the Noir Genre, but Not Entirely, due to Common Ingredients and Intrusions that keep this from Pure Film-Noir. Film-Noir was Truly an Inspired Zeitgeist of the Creative Filmmakers and this is an Example that included Scenes and Elements that would be Absent if it was a Conscious Crafting or a Beforehand Decision. No One stood Around Hollywood and said, "Let's make a Film-Noir". The Genre was Defined After the Fact and was Created in a Spontaneous, Subconscious, and a Collective, Creative Style that Emerged Without Pretense.The Sappy Ending, the awkward Comedy Relief, and other Conventional Mainstream Tropes are some of the Reasons that keep this in the Peripheral Noir. Although, Certain Actors, Cinematographers, and Directors seem Naturally at home in the Film-Noir Genre.Here We have Zachary Scott, whose Oddly Handsome Looks have a Patina of Psychopathy. James Wong Howe behind the Camera was a Stylist of the First Order. Style is something that Noir Embellishes a lot More than its Studio System Sisters and here He Paints some Eerie Pictures.Director Florey also Fits as some of His Films have Dark, Demented Elements and He is at His Best when He goes Off Beat from the Path of Safe used so Often and Tend to be Boring, Redundant, and Unremarkable.Faye Emerson gets Top Billing and Passes as a Conflicted Wall Flower Who Undergoes a Change from Romantically Naive Working Girl, complete with big Horn Rimmed Glasses residing in Her Mom's Protective and Loving Home. Mona Freeman is also Pretty and pretty Good as the Better Looking, but Young Girl Caught in the Killer's Charming but Lethal Web. Rosemary De Camp is quite Effective delivering Trendy Psychiatric Jargon with a Heavy Accent.Overall, there are Enough Noir Ingredients to Qualify Inclusion in the Genre, but it's Not Purebred. Still Enjoyable for its Above Average Triangular Melodrama. It's a bit Short and could have used more Breathing Room to Expand the Things that Worked and would have Improved on its Noir Status Without the Audience Friendly Stuff.

I won't summarize the plot,as several others have done this already. Just two things: Yes,the ending seemed tacked on,like the writer couldn't think of a way to end the picture and just threw this together at the last minute. The other thing is that several posters are under the impression that Zachary Scott did Mildred Pierce first. No,this film came first,two years before Mildred Pierce,in fact. The Monty Berrigon character Scott played in that film is almost a carbon copy of the guy in this film,not the other way around. In fact,I wonder why Scott would agree to play the MP character since it was so close to this one. Maybe he wanted to work with Joan Crawford or maybe ,under the terms of his contract, he had to play anything they told him to. At any rate,he played these sleazy scoundrels well

Kudos to the unnamed stuntman who (as the Ronnie Mason character) near the end of the film takes a tough fall over the cliff and lands in the ocean at an angle. I really cringed.Also, like others I found the acting, direction, camera work and overall atmosphere in this film were terrific. Two caveats though:First, as noted, the ending was indeed too pat and a little sugary. Second, Anne went through some some real difficult to believe 180 degree turn arounds in this film . She quickly goes from the family devoted, all-American girl next door--to a seemingly older person who immediately assumes all of the worst about her sister--to (at the end) the innocent high school girl unaffected by what should have been deeply troubling events.

In the 19th century there was a whole established school of the psychology of personality called physiognomy. We don't hear much about it anymore. Physiognomy was a method of deducing personality traits from appearance alone. Pointy ears meant a bad temper. Heavy eyelids meant a reserved character. Physical features were to physiognomists what bumps on the head were to phrenologists.Sorry. I only mention this because no physiognomist would believe a word of what Zachary Scott said. The poor guy was tall and had a smooth voice but he resembles some kind of underwater creature with his goggle eyes and that mustached brushed backwards like the whiskers on a carp.He puts that semi-handsome but eely presence to good use in "Danger Signal," a short and well-done B drama in which Scott goes about murdering women for their money and then blowing town.In the opening scene we watch him coolly knotting his tie over the dead body of his latest conquest, removing the golden ring he gave her, and stuffing her money into his suitcase before exiting through the window as the landlady pounds on the locked door of the hotel room. We don't know anything else about him and yet we know all we need to know. He's a murderous, psychopathic bottom feeder.If we had any doubts -- could this obvious set-up be a trap for the viewer? -- they're laid to rest in the next scene. Scott is on a train headed for Los Angeles. A man settles in behind him and throws his jacket over the top of the seat. The lapels flop down into Scott's view. Scott dispassionately notices the "ruptured duck" pin on the lapel, a sign of recent discharge from the armed forces, removes it, and drops it into his own pocket. From now on he will pose as a short story writer, which he is, but will falsely claim that he has just been medically discharged after having been wounded in the South Pacific.His fluidity, his reasoning, his charm work wonders. He seduces Faye Emerson, a pretty but colorless office drone, slips her the golden ring ("from my grandmother") and promises to marry her when his ship comes in. It's not clear exactly what he wants from her since she doesn't seem to have a large stash around.But when Emerson's yummy younger sister, Mona Freeman, moves back into the house and reveals that she's about to inherit a good deal of pelf, he seduces Freeman and begins to ignore Emerson. Now -- he may be a bright guy, in the way that psychopaths are bright, but it's a very bad idea to try dumping a thirtyish spinster with whom you've raised the question of marriage. It leads to Scott's undoing.I missed the last twenty minutes or so, and can't comment on the ending, but what I saw was a respectable black-and-white drama shot on a modest budget, competently direct, and nicely photographed -- good enough, that is to say, that I'd like to watch it again from beginning to end.