★ 6 / 10
When a blackmailing singer is found dead, poor
CinemaSerf
When a blackmailing singer is found dead, poor old "Kirk Bennett" (John Phillips) is convicted of her murder. His wife, June Vincent ("Catherine") enlists the…
When a blackmailing singer is found dead, poor old "Kirk Bennett" (John Phillips) is convicted of her murder. His wife, June Vincent ("Catherine") enlists the help of bar-fly "Blair" (Dan Duryea) who happens to be the ex-husband of the murdered woman and, posing as a pianist and singer, they start to investigate, ending up playing quite a complex game of cat and mouse with the excellently sleazy nightclub owner/petty criminal "Marko" (Peter Lorre). Duryea raises his game with his performance here and the safe pair of hands at the tiller from Roy William Neill keeps this well constructed, if occasionally soggy, crime noir moving along quite well with quite a few interesting twists and trust to keep it unpredictable.
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★ 8 / 10
Featuring the softer side of Dan Duryea, ....
AlsExGal
... a satisfyingly menacing Peter Lorre, and a bunch of other people I never heard of before. No seriously, you have Broderick Crawford in a very bit part as a…
... a satisfyingly menacing Peter Lorre, and a bunch of other people I never heard of before. No seriously, you have Broderick Crawford in a very bit part as a cop, but everybody else is pretty obscure. And Universal really had to limp along in that state from 1936 when the Laemmles lost control and took virtually everybody with name recognition working for the studio with them, into the 1950s. And yet this one works.
Martin Blair (Dan Duryea) is a songwriter who has been on a drunken jag since his wife singer Mavis Marlowe found fame and dumped him. One night, on what would have been their wedding anniversary, he attempts to see her, is bounced out of the building by the doorman, gets plastered, and is taken home by his good friend Joe, and locked in his room. After he is thrown out, Martin sees a mysterious character (Peter Lorre) admitted to see Mavis by the doorman. Even later, Kirk Bennett, who has had an affair with Mavis comes up to her apartment to tell her he can't pay her blackmail anymore to keep her quiet about the affair. He finds her body, manages to touch everything, and then panics and leaves but is spotted by Mavis' maid as she returns from her night out.
Bennett is arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to die for Mavis' murder. All the while his cheated upon wife Catherine stands by him. Then - rather late it seems - she goes to confront Martin, whom she thinks is the killer. When she finds that Martin was locked in his room, out stone cold drunk at the time of the murder, she relents.The two oddly decide to pair up, present themselves as a musical team, and try to investigate shady nightclub owner Marko (Peter Lorre) and solve the murder and save Kirk.
The thing is, while Catherine and Martin are posing as a musical team, they actually start making beautiful music together. Martin is on his longest dry stretch in years, and with Catherine rather ambivalent, you can't help but wonder, given Duryea's usual screen persona, is he now that motivated to find the real killer and send Kirk Bennett back to his wife's arms? Watch and find out.
This one has an ending worth waiting for - I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it. Don't let the somewhat slow middle deter you. Highly recommended.
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•••
Duryea always plays the crook... and he does it just fine