A slow, talky, crime melodrama with little action. What action there is, is not only unexcitingly staged but over with far too quickly. Surely something more could have been made out of the climax! All the ingredients were there: the chase through dim alley-ways, the shoot-out across the street with a water-truck advancing - but somehow the action is too truncated and doesn't jell. Even the stalking of the heroine by the villain, though it has the benefit of actual location filming, is so routinely directed that it doesn't bring across to the audience the menace and atmosphere that it should.
The considerable imbalance between talk and action could be rectified to some extent by considerable trimming to bring the running time down to around 50 minutes, snipping away all the jargon and corny dialogue in which Sister Cathy Downs figures ("Ever tried praying?" - "A long, long time ago, when the world was young!") and pruning down the hero's soliloquies and philosophical disquisitions.
Perhaps, too, the unconvincing bringing back of the heroine at the end could also be avoided, but otherwise Miss Smith's part would not benefit from any cuts as she is certainly a most attractive lass and is quite delightfully costumed throughout.
Conte is his usual self as the hero with a conscience, but Bennett is disappointing as the villain, giving the role little menace. We would prefer Miss Downs on the cutting-room floor. Millican's part could stand some trimming too - as could those distinctly second-rate musical items in the Telethon sequence. By and large, the support players are an uninteresting lot of third-raters.
The direction is so routine, it is both stupefying and dull. Other production credits have little to recommend them and production values are distinctly minor.
OTHER VIEWS: Slow-moving film about a charity racket, cheaply made. Constance Smith makes a very attractive heroine. Mr Fisher has obviously received the inspiration for his opening scene from "Double Indemnity". Production values are competent. - JHR writing as George Addison.
The considerable imbalance between talk and action could be rectified to some extent by considerable trimming to bring the running time down to around 50 minutes, snipping away all the jargon and corny dialogue in which Sister Cathy Downs figures ("Ever tried praying?" - "A long, long time ago, when the world was young!") and pruning down the hero's soliloquies and philosophical disquisitions.
Perhaps, too, the unconvincing bringing back of the heroine at the end could also be avoided, but otherwise Miss Smith's part would not benefit from any cuts as she is certainly a most attractive lass and is quite delightfully costumed throughout.
Conte is his usual self as the hero with a conscience, but Bennett is disappointing as the villain, giving the role little menace. We would prefer Miss Downs on the cutting-room floor. Millican's part could stand some trimming too - as could those distinctly second-rate musical items in the Telethon sequence. By and large, the support players are an uninteresting lot of third-raters.
The direction is so routine, it is both stupefying and dull. Other production credits have little to recommend them and production values are distinctly minor.
OTHER VIEWS: Slow-moving film about a charity racket, cheaply made. Constance Smith makes a very attractive heroine. Mr Fisher has obviously received the inspiration for his opening scene from "Double Indemnity". Production values are competent. - JHR writing as George Addison.