RickeyMooney

Since the movie starts with June Havoc turning herself in to the LA police, it's no spoiler that it's about her descent.

The rest is all flashback. The old story of a luckless seeker of employment tempted to join forces with a criminal, in this case Iris Adrian, a shoplifter in San Francisco.

Havoc manages to escape unscathed to Los Angeles and get a job as a waitress but falls heavily for small-time crook Cesar Romero, whose specialties include bilking gullible working women of their savings. To make matters worse, Havoc takes in Marie McDonald as a roommate who proves untrustworthy. And then Adrian turns up in LA.

All very Dostoevskian (like I know anything about Dostoevsky). Anyway a gripping drama with various twists and turns. And it's always a nice change of pace to see a noir without issues being decided by fistfights and gun battles.

Definitely not upbeat but well-acted and absorbing.

This noir film is unusual in that its biggest surprises occur in the first half of the movie. The user reviews that consist mostly of recounting the plot thus spoil the effect of seeing it for the first time. If you think you'd like to watch it, I recommend avoiding them.

It's usually best to save surprises for the end of a story, but given the film's plot it would have been difficult.

Without giving away too much, Frank Lovejoy plays an LA drive-in restaurant owner and compulsive gambler who gets inveigled into a plot to recover Nazi loot hidden during WW II.

The second half of the film is straight adventure and suspense, much of the latter coming from trying to guess who is or isn't in on what seems to be a rather large conspiracy for a relatively small goal.

Co-stars Mari Blanchard and Richard Denning are enjoyable in juicier parts than Lovejoy's. An enjoyable watch even if a tad implausible in spots.

It's true that the 1956 film with the more relevant title Beyond a Reasonable Doubt shares the same plot device as this film. For a half hour or so they're quite similar with some small but significant differences. After that they diverge, much to the advantage of the later film. This is not because of its bigger names and budget but because of its superior script.

The later film's plot has some ingenious unpredictable twists and turns. This film devolves into low-grade crime film cliches. Three scenes within ten minutes where someone has their gun taken away is a bit much.

If, like me, you enjoy watching different takes on the same plot, watch this film after you've seen the other one. Otherwise you can safely skip it.