Alex da Silva Claire Trevor (Helen) returns home after a night out celebrating her divorce. When she arrives at her boarding house, she discovers that her fellow lodger Isabel Jewell (Laury) has been murdered along with boyfriend Tony Barrett (Danny). There is another boyfriend on the scene – psychotic Lawrence Tierney (Sam) – and you had better not make a monkey of him. He WILL kill you. The whole beginning sequence is well acted by all and throws you straight into the story. On discovering the bodies, Claire goes to call the police, picks up the phone but then stalls, puts the receiver down and walks away from the scene. She thinks and then returns to pick up the phone again……..and she calls the train station! Ha ha – fooled us all. It's at the train station where she meets the killer Tierney and a relationship is formed. There are complications to this relationship alongside the added pressure of boozy floozy landlady Esther Howard (Mrs Kraft) hiring PI Walter Slezak (Arnett) to find out who killed her lodger.All the cast are excellent, especially Claire Trevor and Esther Howard. They all have screen presence. The relationship between Tierney and fellow criminal Elisha Cook Jr (Marty) is given a very obvious gay subtext. Cook Jr is his bitch – no doubt about it. Tierney is scary and each member of the cast is given at least one powerful, emotional scene and delivers it as required. At the end of the film I think it's a bottle of beer for Ms Howard please!

writers_reign The screenplay is something Harry Stephen Keeler might have written whilst heavily sedated. There's no back story for the male lead Lawrence Tierney nor for his relationship with Elisha Cooke Jnr; following Claire Trevor he finds her with her half-sister and fiancé. He tells the sister she will be seeing more of him Cut: they're married. Economical or sloppy writing. Three guesses. Lawrence, who was the elder brother of Scott Brady here bears more resemblance to Ray Milland albeit he has the acting ability of an amoeba with learning difficulties. Some of the best performances come from the support in the shape of Walter Slezak's private eye, sans moustache for once, and Esther Howard, looking as though she hasn't drawn a sober breath since she played Jesse Florian in Farewell, My Lovely. Watchable.

ReasonablePiper This movie was pretty violent for coming out during the Hays Code. I guess they let some things slide because it was released by RKO. In particular, the first murder scene is very violent, and realistic, for a 1947 film. The movie is very cold-hearted. Sam (Lawrence Tierney) is essentially a male version of a femme fatale. He is greedy and without a conscious. Murder doesn't bother him, and he plays with women's emotions to get what he wants. He is also child-like in that he lets his emotions (angry, violent, and self-centered) control him. The only person who can influence him is Marty, a "friend" from prison who also happens to share a room and a bed with Sam. Although it's possible that there was no implied gay relationship between them, it was the 40s and filmmakers had to be subtle. The reason I think this interpretation is valid is because Marty is the only who can calm Sam down, and in addition to their living situation, seems too important to ignore. The women are cold-hearted too, but not as evil as Sam.Overall, the movie is a very enjoyable noir, and it deserves to be more widely known. I for one think it is better than the Big Sleep. The ending was perhaps a bit too neat, but it worked nonetheless.8/10

Roger Burke There are few actors who are prepared to take on the role of evil again and again. Tough guy Lawrence Tierney was one such actor, appearing in The Ghost Ship (1943), Dillinger (1945), The Devil Thumbs A Ride (1947) and The Hoodlum (1951) plus a few outings in westerns playing outlaw, and Jesse James twice, even.The storyline on the main page gives you enough to know about the plot at the outset; so, I won't repeat much here. Instead, I concentrate of the characters and the revealing implications contained in the whole story.In this story, Tierney is true to form: arrogant, petulant, egocentric, coldly homicidal, and psychologically insecure. In today's parlance, he'd probably be classed as clinical sociopath. Assisting him (as Sam Wild – what a deliciously appropriate name!), we see Claire Trevor as Helen Brent, a quick-witted gold digger with the morals of a corrupt cop or politician, who is, respectively, attracted to and repulsed by Sam Wild's forceful persona and his ruthless, take-no-prisoners modus operandi.Sam's the dominant partner in crime; Helen's along for the exciting ride, or so she says. Together, they make a formidable pair in crime. Accompanying Sam, we see Elisha Cook Jnr as the affably degenerate Marty Waterman who, as the plot develops, is revealed as not just a verbal punching bag for Sam, but also an alter ego who can get things done – including functioning as an effete gunsel for Sam, in more ways than one. The two men have been together for five years or more, obviously sleeping on the same double bed in their rented room – an aspect that certainly points to more than just a business partner relationship, given the character of both.And, given the year of production of this movie and the power of the Hays Code at that time, I wonder how much was left on the cutting-room floor to satisfy its demands prior to distribution.On the sidelines, and as a growing presence, we see Walter Slezak as Arnett, a sleazy, greasy, all-too-easily corrupted PI who is always on the make and on the take – from whom ever he can. He'd been hired by Mrs Kraft (Ester Howard) to track down Sam Wild who'd murdered two people in Reno and was now in San Francisco. So there, while digging up the dirt on Sam, Arnett discovers he can maybe get a bigger payoff by twisting Helen's arm, so to speak, for a bigger cash prize than the fee he's currently getting from Kraft. Unfortunately for Arnett, he gets what he deserves, instead.And throughout all of these insidious shenanigans, the "nice" people of San Francisco – Phillip Terry as Fred, and Audrey Long as Georgina – struggle to make sense of Helen and Sam. Fred and Georgina represent the epitome of what The American Dream is supposed to be; instead, we see them enmeshed in the American Nightmare that has invaded their oh-so-idealistic, consumer-driven lives. It's a powerful message that suffuses the story from the very first, and which gradually builds on each and every dirty trick and deed perpetrated by the Unholy Three of Sam, Helen and Marty. As film noir, it's an excellent example with an inexorable build-up of suspense and dread. Lawrence Tierney is simply made for the role of sociopath, and Claire Trevor, as femme fatale, responds in a similar fashion. Sure, it's melodrama; that, however, makes the implicit indictment of The American Dream all the more effective, and ironic, as the dark side of business in America is stripped bare. Elisha Cook Jnr, as always, plays his supporting role to the limit; and Walter Slezak never fails to entertain.Add in the professionalism of Robert Wise's direction and you can be assured of an entertaining and thought-provoking 92 minutes.The production is in black and white, of course; and overall, it's up to the mark to qualify as an excellent B-movie. Recommended for all Tierney fans and lovers of film noir.Give this 8 out of 10.January 18, 2013.