beegeebright

It seems to me that most people missed the important parts of the movie. They seem too distracted by an early Leslie Nielsen and their desire to recount the entire plot.

They couldn't have missed the repressed sexuality that pervades the movie. It is emphasized by the repeated mentions of the heat, so like that in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (althought the movie came later, the Broadway play did not). The town attracts heat the deputy explains. All kinds of heat. The wife in her tight white slip on a brass bed begging for some attention which she does not get. It's a dime store Elizabeth Taylor. Just as Leslie Nielsen is the cheaper Paul Newman.

There is also the Robin Hood story, the repetition of the name Tom Ellis, who does good for everyone in this rural town is another theme that while it doesn't set the movie apart does disinguish it from a run of the mill bank robber story. A town down at the edges with only Tom Ellis to be proud of. It shows both the risk and the banality of crime.

It almost reminded me of "Touch of Evil" the pervading sense of danger and dread for a woman dressed in virginal white who is only there to be with her husband.

There is also the cliche of the whole town protecting one person, denying knowledge that the inquirer knows that they have. I was amazed frankly that this is not considered a film noir. I suppose there isn't a bad woman leading a man astray but there seems to be almost everything else. We never see a bank robbery but we do see murder. And there is plenty of suspense.

An undersung gem!