Filmed in Naturama, Republic’s answer to Paramount’s VistaVision, and Truecolor, where interior shots looked crisp and realistically, yet cold, this seventy-four-minute film is a pretty lackluster outing for a mostly competent cast. They lift this to a solidly average B-movie. Distributed by Republic Pictures, it is directed and produced by Joseph Kane, and is based on the novel, "Vanity Row" by W. R. Burnett. The seventy-four-minute screenplay is by Burnett and Robert Creighton Williams. A film probably dismissed once leaving the theater.
You witness a murder. You arrange to meet the assumed murderer, hitman Warren Stevens, with the intent of blackmail. How dumb do you need to be? Like Virginia Grey in this role. Her “dance for hire” job stinks and she looks marked for death from her first scene. After she confronts Stevens, he insists he did not commit any murder and decks Grey. But neither is quite through. She pesters him by phone later, with Stevens returning to severely beat her as a final warning. Grey will be the performance best remembered from this film.
Stevens is on a shortlist of suspects, the other being Vera Ralston, who portrays a singer, after a fashion, whose nightclub is frequented by Sydney Blackmer, an underworld lawyer. To him, her dubbed vocals are like sugar to a cockroach. I could have used closed captioning for some of her dialogue due to her thick accent. Despite this possible communication problem, Blackmer is interested in marriage, a thought that never occurred to her. He does not take her rejection gracefully.
During the investigation, the police lieutenant, David Brian, after hearing---translating---her story to his fellow officers, gets more involved with Ralston than official police procedures. His performance is the other one remembered. He is solid and believable, coming off strong yet compassionate. He is sympathetic toward Ralston believing she is innocent, though growing evidence provides doubts. Squint-eyed partner, Lee Van Cleef, pressures Brian, suggesting he has a conflict of interest. Cleef possesses a most unfortunate last name for an aspiring sergeant: Lackey. There are a few twists and curves to keep one guessing how Blackmer expired with an ending that may surprise you. But by shaving fifteen minutes never to be missed, it could have played better as an hour-long early television episode.
Stevens is on a shortlist of suspects, the other being Vera Ralston, who portrays a singer, after a fashion, whose nightclub is frequented by Sydney Blackmer, an underworld lawyer. To him, her dubbed vocals are like sugar to a cockroach. I could have used closed captioning for some of her dialogue due to her thick accent. Despite this possible communication problem, Blackmer is interested in marriage, a thought that never occurred to her. He does not take her rejection gracefully.
During the investigation, the police lieutenant, David Brian, after hearing---translating---her story to his fellow officers, gets more involved with Ralston than official police procedures. His performance is the other one remembered. He is solid and believable, coming off strong yet compassionate. He is sympathetic toward Ralston believing she is innocent, though growing evidence provides doubts. Squint-eyed partner, Lee Van Cleef, pressures Brian, suggesting he has a conflict of interest. Cleef possesses a most unfortunate last name for an aspiring sergeant: Lackey. There are a few twists and curves to keep one guessing how Blackmer expired with an ending that may surprise you. But by shaving fifteen minutes never to be missed, it could have played better as an hour-long early television episode.
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