Il veleno del peccato

This is a story told in flashback by the night editor of a newspaper to warn off Coulter Irwin (Johnny) from misbehaving away from home. It is the tale of policeman William Gargan (Tony) who is playing away from home with Janis Carter (Jill). One night they witness a murder but Gargan hesitates in pursuing the culprit for the sake of revealing his affair and bringing shame upon himself. The murder is investigated by his homicide team but things don't sit comfortably with him when an innocent man is sentenced to death for the crime. He holds the key to a stay of execution but will he reveal his hand?

The film gets off to a slow start - the first fifteen minutes are actually quite annoying as we have to suffer some crass dialogue from a boy, eg, "I get lonesome sometimes". It's unrealistic dialogue and makes the boy seem like a drip. You can actually see why Gargan is having an affair when we are also introduced to the sickly nice Jeff Donnell (Martha) who plays his wife. If you can get past the rather sentimentally awful beginning, then you will be rewarded as scheming Janis Carter makes an appearance.

As regards the cast, everyone has good and bad moments: Janis Carter is unintentionally hilarious when she loses control of her emotions and begs to see the dead body of the murdered woman, Paul E Burns (Strom) puts on an awful foreign accent from nowhere but succeeds in being likable as Gargan's police buddy, while Gargan himself is a bit too zombie-like on occasion.

Despite the cast being slightly off, the film still works and the story keeps you watching. You may guess the outcome but you will also be entertained by some of the twists.