... Laird Cregar sitting next to my bed in the middle of the night!
I'm not spoiling this one completely, but I am going to say enough that I thought I should put a spoiler warning on this. This would be a great creepy mystery if it wasn't for one scene that was shot, towards the beginning, that gives the entire thing away. It is a flashback, and it gives everything away as far as motive and murderer.
The set-up is that Victor Mature (Frankie Christopher) is a professional "promoter". I'm still not sure EXACTLY what that means - agent maybe? He spots Vicki Lynn (Carol Landis), a pretty blonde, working as a waitress in a restaurant and bets his colleagues he can build her into a celebrity. He does just that. But Vicki turns out to be a greedy climber. She dumps Frankie romantically and professionally when she gets a chance at a Hollywood career. But before she can make the train to Hollywood she is found murdered in her apartment.
Did Frankie kill her for dumping him? Did the agents who stole Vicki from Frankie kill her because she was using them too? Did the sister (Betty Grable) do it because she loves Frankie in secret - maybe doesn't even admit this to herself yet - and hates how Vicki just walked all over him. Is it some other weird person I haven't mentioned? Watch and find out.
This film has some of the worst police interrogation scenes in the history of the world. "We know you did it." "You'll fry for this for sure!" oddly do not get cooperation out of the subject. So they say, "be a pal, we only want the truth." Oh yeah, I'd believe those guys! Maybe our current criminal justice system is too lax, but I don't think I want to go back to the days of hot lights and sleep deprivation as suspect interrogation techniques.
The atmosphere and score are very good, but if you expect me to believe that Victor Mature is an agent with great connections, then you would expect me to believe that rowdy Robert Ryan could play Ed Sullivan. On second thought, maybe he could!
I'm not spoiling this one completely, but I am going to say enough that I thought I should put a spoiler warning on this. This would be a great creepy mystery if it wasn't for one scene that was shot, towards the beginning, that gives the entire thing away. It is a flashback, and it gives everything away as far as motive and murderer.
The set-up is that Victor Mature (Frankie Christopher) is a professional "promoter". I'm still not sure EXACTLY what that means - agent maybe? He spots Vicki Lynn (Carol Landis), a pretty blonde, working as a waitress in a restaurant and bets his colleagues he can build her into a celebrity. He does just that. But Vicki turns out to be a greedy climber. She dumps Frankie romantically and professionally when she gets a chance at a Hollywood career. But before she can make the train to Hollywood she is found murdered in her apartment.
Did Frankie kill her for dumping him? Did the agents who stole Vicki from Frankie kill her because she was using them too? Did the sister (Betty Grable) do it because she loves Frankie in secret - maybe doesn't even admit this to herself yet - and hates how Vicki just walked all over him. Is it some other weird person I haven't mentioned? Watch and find out.
This film has some of the worst police interrogation scenes in the history of the world. "We know you did it." "You'll fry for this for sure!" oddly do not get cooperation out of the subject. So they say, "be a pal, we only want the truth." Oh yeah, I'd believe those guys! Maybe our current criminal justice system is too lax, but I don't think I want to go back to the days of hot lights and sleep deprivation as suspect interrogation techniques.
The atmosphere and score are very good, but if you expect me to believe that Victor Mature is an agent with great connections, then you would expect me to believe that rowdy Robert Ryan could play Ed Sullivan. On second thought, maybe he could!