Trouble could be her middle name as this bubble dancer reveals secrets about her past with the help of some truly bizarre characters. Private detective Franchot Tone must find out the past of the wife of his client and what he ends up with is more trouble than love can handle. Along the way he meets a bunch of shady characters curious to find out why he's trying to find out info on this person, including some shady nightclub proprietors, a cockney waitress with an incredible gift of twisting conversations away from the questions being asked her. Then there's the sister of the investigated dame whose presence instantly brings a ton of other questions, not all of which will be answered.
This features a truly smart alecky screenplay and plenty of twists and turns that make you say, "huh?" until the end which in a second's notice becomes "Ah ha!" When you've got females involved like Janet Blair, Adele Jergens, Janis Carter and Glenda Farrell, you know that the wisecracks and double entendres will be coming fast and furious. Veteran Farrell seems to be emulating Lee Patrick from "The Maltese Falcon" as Tone's no nonsense secretary. Such great character actors as Eduardo Cianelli, John Ireland and Steven Geray add on interesting male characterizations, with Geray reminding me of all the other thick accented Europeans after World War II whose foreign persona instantly indicated something shady. In one of his earliest roles, Raymond Burr shows off his expertise at villainy, his specialty until TV cast him as a hero detective like Tone's character.
Tone, a veteran of a few classic thrillers of this nature, doesn't rival Bogart for the type of sly wisecracks he's given. While the Los Angeles locations of the 1940's offer a feeling of nostalgia (including a visit to the Santa Monica pier), the plot requires more of a road map than Tone's travels. This is the type of film to watch on the big screen (preferably as part of a film noir festival) so you don't have any distractions. If only the story wasn't so off the beat and path and the twist at the end so darned ordinary, this might have rated a bit higher. Still great fun for film noir buffs, though.
This features a truly smart alecky screenplay and plenty of twists and turns that make you say, "huh?" until the end which in a second's notice becomes "Ah ha!" When you've got females involved like Janet Blair, Adele Jergens, Janis Carter and Glenda Farrell, you know that the wisecracks and double entendres will be coming fast and furious. Veteran Farrell seems to be emulating Lee Patrick from "The Maltese Falcon" as Tone's no nonsense secretary. Such great character actors as Eduardo Cianelli, John Ireland and Steven Geray add on interesting male characterizations, with Geray reminding me of all the other thick accented Europeans after World War II whose foreign persona instantly indicated something shady. In one of his earliest roles, Raymond Burr shows off his expertise at villainy, his specialty until TV cast him as a hero detective like Tone's character.
Tone, a veteran of a few classic thrillers of this nature, doesn't rival Bogart for the type of sly wisecracks he's given. While the Los Angeles locations of the 1940's offer a feeling of nostalgia (including a visit to the Santa Monica pier), the plot requires more of a road map than Tone's travels. This is the type of film to watch on the big screen (preferably as part of a film noir festival) so you don't have any distractions. If only the story wasn't so off the beat and path and the twist at the end so darned ordinary, this might have rated a bit higher. Still great fun for film noir buffs, though.