Vera Hruba Ralston is a nightclub singer who has just had her opening night. Sidney Blackmer, a lawyer who's been stealing from the mob, asks her to marry him, but she doesn't love him. Mob boss Richard Karlan tells Warren Stevens to kill him, and he does so... with dance hall hostess Virginia Grey spotting him on the street just after the shot is fired. When homicide detectives David Brian and Lee van Cleef start investigating, the trail leads them immediately to Miss Ralston. Their problem is that the story she tells is not the story shown on the screen, nor does it match up their background checks.... and Miss Grey's attempts to blackmail a killer are not as smart as she would imagine....
It's wide screen and color and from a story by W.R. Burnett and shows promise, but director Joseph Kane doesn't know how to direct the scenes for the sexual heat that Burnett's story demands, so the abrupt changes are a bit cringeworthy. Still, there's a good scene with Elisha Cook Jr. as a sweaty alky and Frank Puglia is rather sweet as a sympathetic night club owner. There's not a spot of chemistry between the leads, however, and the result is a sub-par time waster.
It's wide screen and color and from a story by W.R. Burnett and shows promise, but director Joseph Kane doesn't know how to direct the scenes for the sexual heat that Burnett's story demands, so the abrupt changes are a bit cringeworthy. Still, there's a good scene with Elisha Cook Jr. as a sweaty alky and Frank Puglia is rather sweet as a sympathetic night club owner. There's not a spot of chemistry between the leads, however, and the result is a sub-par time waster.