On paper this had the makings of a winner; co-scripted (with her ex- Collier Young) by that most intelligent of actresses (who was also no slouch as a director) Ida Lupino, directed by Don Seigel at just about the time he started making a noise (Riot In Cell Block 11 was made back-to-back with this entry), with major acting credits split equally between Lupino, Dean Jagger, Dorothy Malone, Howard Duff and Steve Cochran, all well known at the time, it should have turned out far better than it did. Watching it today the pace appears to be well off and coupled to that is that uneasy feeling that some of the cast are playing in different films. Lupino always delivers and trivia buffs will note that she had already played a pianist-singer in Jean Negulesco's 1948 entry Roadhouse and in both movies her character was named Lily (or, in this case, Lili) Stevens and Marlowe respectively and as an actress she would offer one of her greatest portrayals as Marion, the wife of actor Charley Castle in Clifford Odets' The Big Knife two years later. On the other hand even cast as a domesticated wife Dorothy Malone can't help vamping as if still auditioning for the Lupino femme fatale role. It's watchable certainly but certainly no more.
Review of Private Hell 36
