In die Enge getrieben

Ginger Rogers sheds her usual movie ways and portrays a girl surviving a sentence for hiding a criminal. She is offered her freedom if she will testify against someone who the government is trying to get. Problem is that her ex-boyfriend has already taken a fatal bullet on his way to testify.

Edward G. Robinson is the D.A. here in this exciting film. There is a marvelous supporting performance by Brian Keith, as the cop, assigned to watch her. Naturally, romance blooms and there is quite a surprise waiting for viewers when we realize who he really is in this film.

Here is a girl telling those in prison to keep their mouths shut and do as little as possible. "Never volunteer" is her motto. How quickly the situation and her beliefs change.

As Sherry Conley, Rogers depicts a girl whose environment led her astray. The film is well worth catching.

As a big fan of Ginger Rogers', I think this film, although late in her career, is rather good. Of course with Edgar G. Robinson as the district attorney, there's no way this could be bad. The opening prison laundry scenes are more than a little hard to believe (after all, when was the last time you were in prison with perfectly manicured nails). Over all, drama and comedy nicely balanced.

Ginger Rogers is good as the tough-talking woman sprung from prison to testify in a trial. What a strange career she had! Best known for her movies with Fred Astaire, she was also a delightful comedienne. She did some serious work in her prime, winning an Oscar for an only-OK soap opera. But she's good in "Primrose Path." She turned tough in many of her fifties outings, and she looked tough too. Here she has sort of a pixie haircut that doesn't quite work with the character and isn't flattering to her. But she's excellent.

Edward G. Robinson, billed second to her, is superb. He always was. That man was incapable of giving a bad performance, no matter how oddly cast he might have been at times. Brian Keith, whom many know for sunny outings in later television, is exceptional as a very tough cop. He really is the focus of this movie, though the Rogers character is the lead.

Who in the world was Lucy Marlow, who got fourth billing? It says prison girl. Hmm. The woman playing the matron, Katherine Anderson, is important to the plot. She is very touching as well.

Lorne Green is another actor who played some mean hombres before he became the benevolent dad on TV's "Bonanza." His character is less nuanced than the one he plays in "Autumn Leaves." But he does well by it.

Phil Karlson was an excellent director, who had some of the nastiest, darkest, roughest noirs of the fifties under his belt. This is among the best of them.

Ginger Rogers, who was usually more glamorous in her movie roles, invades territory normally occupied by Claire Trevor or Veda Ann Borg. She's a good time gal who happens to be on a pleasure cruise with mob boss Lorne Greene and Greene has smuggled another gangster into the country. U.S. Attorney Edward G. Robinson is seeking to deport Greene.

Greene's enemies have a habit of ending up dead. And our story begins with conflicted cop Brian Keith assigned to protect Ginger as Robinson tries to convince her to testify.

Rogers's career was on the downside here, but she's still a dynamite presence on the screen. Robinson and Keith are solid here and who would have thunk of Ben Cartright as a mobster.

Nice film, tightly edited, not a wasted frame in it.

Ginger Rogers gives one of her best performances here, as a tough gangster's "moll" turned state witness. Her gutsy, strong and sexy performance carries the conventional plot. Robinson and Keith are fine, but they don't have much to do except get dazzled by Ginger - and who wouldn't be. It is a little hard to believe that Keith, at 34, would fall for Ginger, at 44, but that's all part of the illusion of glamourous Hollywood. Ginger looks great, but she does look her age.

The main problem here is the inadequate adaptation from a stage play - the action is too confined in the one room, and there is too much dialogue. But this is worth catching for the original Ginger Spice in full fireworks' mode.