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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Oddball Film-Noir. A Low-Budget Gem from Low-Budget Director Cahn. It is Quite the Quirk This. A Movie that has Gritty Characters with Hard-Boiled, Cold Blooded Killers. One (Stanley Clements) Looks and Acts Like a Teenaged Ticket Taker at the Local Bijou.Albert Dekker and Hurd Hatfield are a Nasty Duo. Hadfield has a Bi-Sexual Bent and Dekker Again Plays One of His Sublime Criminals with the Personality of a Profiled Psycho Killer. The Females are Joyce MacKenzie and Myrna Dell, Both Engaging Enough in Their Perspective Personas, Although MaKenzie Seems a Bit Old for a College Student.The Tone of the Thing is The Thing Here. Director Cahn, As Always, Manage to Take a Miniscule Budget and Make it All Look Attractively Demented with Echoes of Pulp. It Should Also be Mentioned that the Negro Musical Group at the Nightclub Stands Out and at the Beginning of the Decade Foreshadow a Musical Revolution just a Few Years Away when Race Records Crossed Over.Overall, a B-Noir that is Made Interesting by its Very Cool Ambiance and Some Off Beat Actors. Worth a Watch for Fans of Film-Noir, B-Movies, and Those that Appreciate a Strange Atmosphere.

Weasley Stanley Clements plays Jackie Wales, a messenger with a gambling addiction. When the film opens he is at the movies witha girl. During intermission he goes out to buy popcorn - but in reality he has been hired as a killer and his target is Mansfield, Laura's father. Laura is played by Joyce Mackenzie, a poor man's Barbara Hale - they look as though they could be sister's with Joyce being the more sophisticated of the two.Laura is convinced that Jackie is the killer and befriends him so she will be able to catch him out. Hurd Hatfield (looking a bit older than his Dorian Gray days) plays Stretch ("I don't like dames"), the shadowy manager of the club that Laura gets a job with. He is also the mastermind of the whole operation. Stretch and the club owner (Albert Decker) are planning to bump Jackie off to stop himfrom "shooting off his mouth".Laura falls in love with Stretch and confides her real identity to him.... little does she know.I found this a very good noir. Starring small timers or actors that had seen better days, it had quite a few twists. To me Hurd Hatfield proved Dorian Gray was a role he was born to play - he was a one dimensional actor with an expressionless face.The film was very good.

The film carries the RKO banner, but it's not an RKO production. That studio's great production unit knew how to make noirs. This independent production released by RKO apparently knows little. The film is almost a complete misfire from muddled script, to lackluster direction, to absent style, to the waste of Albert Dekker, Hurd Hatfield, and John Dehner. In fact, the ordinarily competent James Flavin almost sounds like he's doing his cop dialogue by the numbers. Please, if you can make sense of the story line, there's a place for you in the MIT physics department, (did writer Martin forget what he had written from one day to the next). And who in the heck held the gun to Dekker's head in such an embarrassing piece of Jekyll and Hyde that it's likely the low point of his career. Add to that the staging of a final scene so clumsily done, it parodies the real thing. Yes, there are some novel ideas trying to survive, (just what is the relationship between Armitage and Stretch). But unfortunately they're buried in a tangle of half-ideas, never to see the light of day. I have the utmost respect for RKO's great noir tradition. But releasing this misbegotten indie could have threatened the whole concept. The only good thing is the really smooth jazz combo who should have gotten the entire 70 minutes instead of just five.

This film held my interest from beginning to the very end with one outstanding actor, Hurd Hatfield (Stretch Norton) who gave an outstanding performance and kept this film moving along in his night club owned by mobsters. Laura Mansfield, (Joyce Mackenzie) played the role as a young girl coming home from college and witnesses her father being killed by a delivery man at their front door. Laura decides to do her own detective work, because the police do not seem to be working fast enough in their investigation and Laura does determine who the killer is but has to find ways of getting more evidence. Albert Dekker, (Armitage) gives a great supporting role and Joyce Mackenzie lightens up the film which her charming female looks. Although, this film is a low budget film, it has many twists and turns and will entertain you.