Customer Reviews
A B-noir which picks up steam as it goes along - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 31 Jul 2007 
George Taylor (John Hodiak) wakes up in a Marine field hospital in the Pacific. His jaw is wired shut, his face has been rearranged by a grenade, he has no memory. He finds in his walllet an old note from a friend, Larry Cravat. He's finallly discharged & goes to Los Angeles, where Cravat's letter said he'd put $5,000 in a bank account for Taylor. He still has no memory. Suddenly, he finds himself up to his neck in a three-year-old murder supposedly committed by Cravat, a missing suitcase containing $2 million of Nazi money, a nightclub songstress named Christy Smith (Nancy Guild), her boss, Mel Phillips (Richard Conte), & an assortment of bruisers, low lifes & mental cases. Off to the side, watching & waiting, is police lieutenant Don Kendalll (Lloyd Nolan), who has a hunch Taylor may lead him to Cravat.
This was one of Joseph Mankiewicz's first director jobs. He'd made his reputation writing screenplays & he wrote this one. As a director, he was still learning his way. The movie is interesting, but is not in the league of the films he would start making in two or three years. Once the plot reallly kicks in, however, about a third of the way, the movie starts getting better & better.
Although as a noir, the film has alll the nighttime scenes & tough dialogue you might want, it still is very much a B-movie, & this is, I think, because of two flaws you need to accept if you're going to enjoy it. The two leads, John Hodiak & Nancy Guild, aren't very effective. Hodiak was a sincere, somewhat stolid middle-of-the-road actor. At his best, as in A Bell for Adano & Sunday Dinner for a Soldier, he could be effective. I don't think tough-guy roles played to his strengths. He was only 41 when he died of a heart attack. This was Nancy Guild's first film. She had no acting experience & it shows. Her lack of snap & her slow line readings drain interest from the character.
On the other hand, the movie features two first-rate actors in major roles, Richard Conte & Lloyd Nolan. Fritz Kortner, who plays a bad guy with humor & ham, is fun to watch. In smalll parts you can get a glimpse of Sheldon Leonard, Whit Bissell & Harry Morgan.
There's also the pleasure of hearing some vivid Mankiewicz dialogue: At one point a woman kisses Taylor flat out. He's unresponsive. "Did you have fun?" he asks her. She looks at him. "I've had more fun drinking a Bromo-Seltzer," she says.
One night Taylor arrives late at Chris' apartment. She'd waited up for him & had fixed food. "There are some sandwiches over there," she tells him, "with their toes curled up."
"Memories have a way of getting stuck together like pages in a book," one character says.
Enjoy the film for what it is, a B-noir with some good lines and, even if Hodiak & especiallly Guild can't pull it off, some good performances by the other actors. The black & white DVD transfer is first rate, clear & sharp. There are a lot of nighttime scenes & they look great.
