Slow moving at first and extremely convoluted, this finally curves into the train station at full blast about half way through the film as plot twists explode like the engine jumping the track. For a seemingly small town, a lot happens here, even with the nearby nightclub run by the crooked Tom Conway. He lusts after the lusty Ava Gardner who is really in love with George Raft, but she can't commit to anybody, seemingly anxious to escape the small town life she is too big to find thrilling. Leaving her home in the hands of caretaker Raft and his housekeeper mother (Florence Bates), she comes home out of the blue and brings intrigue with her shadow. Conway and Raft go neck and neck to get her for themselves, while the seemingly slow-witted sidekick Victor McLaglen becomes involved in a dangerous scheme to avenge himself on Conway.
There are a handful of moments that make this film noir somewhat intriguing, but there is too convoluted of a plot to be believable and a too neatly wrapped ending. Gardner, just coming into her own as a film noir vixen, seems far too savvy to fall for the two much older men who are after her. There's a very violent sequence where one of Raft's female admirers is suddenly hurt at a town dance and an extremely graphic fight between Raft and Conway, and later an even more violent confrontation between Conway and McLaglen. Florence Bates has a great part as the warm-hearted mother figure to Gardner who is obviously just a stone's throw from stardom here. All she needed was a better film to get her out there, and with the same year's "The Killers", that would be soon, creating a legend that continues to shine.
There are a handful of moments that make this film noir somewhat intriguing, but there is too convoluted of a plot to be believable and a too neatly wrapped ending. Gardner, just coming into her own as a film noir vixen, seems far too savvy to fall for the two much older men who are after her. There's a very violent sequence where one of Raft's female admirers is suddenly hurt at a town dance and an extremely graphic fight between Raft and Conway, and later an even more violent confrontation between Conway and McLaglen. Florence Bates has a great part as the warm-hearted mother figure to Gardner who is obviously just a stone's throw from stardom here. All she needed was a better film to get her out there, and with the same year's "The Killers", that would be soon, creating a legend that continues to shine.