It is hard to believe that Lewis Seiler directed all of this film, remembering the very routine handling of his other Bogart vehicles: Crime School, King of the Underworld, You Can't Get Away With Murder and It All Came True. Most likely he took over the direction from some more inventive director and made a game attempt to follow to some degree the film's original remarkably visual style - e.g. the opening scenes of the flashback, a low angle camera tracking with Bogart through the seedy streets, the mood of depression and desperation set by the narration re-inforced by the moody lighting photography with its shadows and great blocks of black.
There are odd snips of the original director's conception throughout: Bogart's face framed by doorways and curtains, a spotlight picking out the dancer on the stage, devices which are used both atmospherically and symbolically (Bogart is "framed" and the dancer is killed in a spotlight). Then there's the obvious one of the cigarette being stamped out before the end title. And there is a remarkable, brief-but-nightmarish montage routine with Bogie sent to prison a four-time loser, the judges rapping out the sentence and the high gates closing.
There's also an effective use of mirrors in a couple of key scenes, and the action spots are excitingly staged and edited. But mostly the film is directed in Seiler's usual routine and unremarkable style - but it does have some great performances.
The script has a couple of flaws. The dialogue tends to be cliched (in fact some of it could be transposed without change into one of those joke books on How To Write Dialogue For the Movies) but in the lips of such wonderful players as Bogie, Irene Manning (looking very attractive here in lighting and costumes), Stanley Ridges (perfect as the criminal mastermind attorney double-dealer), Chick Chandler (giving the performance of his career as the charming, talented but ruthless dancer), Joseph Downing (a ruthless thug to end all ruthless thugs) and others we love every word of it.
The support cast is first-rate with Howard da Silva effective in a small role as Downing's running-mate, Murray Alper ditto as an unwilling stoolie, John Ridgely in a two-line bit as an eager but blind cop, Joseph King as the biding-his-time prosecutor, William Edmunds as the "No trouble in here please, Duke" sleazy cafe proprietor, Virginia Sale as a screamer and Ralph Dunn as the always-standing-around prison guard. Richard Travis is okay as the eager-beaver George though he has some sooky lines to say which he does not manage over well; and while Susan Peters has only a small part as his lady-love, she makes her court-room breakdown fairly convincing.
The plot is improbable, but we don't mind that so much as the fact that with the film three-quarters over, the scriptwriters try to insert a little cosy domesticity and comic relief, which they do very badly and ineptly and quite jarring the mood of the rest of the film. A little deft re-editing could completely eliminate these objectionable scenes and improve the film enormously.
There are odd snips of the original director's conception throughout: Bogart's face framed by doorways and curtains, a spotlight picking out the dancer on the stage, devices which are used both atmospherically and symbolically (Bogart is "framed" and the dancer is killed in a spotlight). Then there's the obvious one of the cigarette being stamped out before the end title. And there is a remarkable, brief-but-nightmarish montage routine with Bogie sent to prison a four-time loser, the judges rapping out the sentence and the high gates closing.
There's also an effective use of mirrors in a couple of key scenes, and the action spots are excitingly staged and edited. But mostly the film is directed in Seiler's usual routine and unremarkable style - but it does have some great performances.
The script has a couple of flaws. The dialogue tends to be cliched (in fact some of it could be transposed without change into one of those joke books on How To Write Dialogue For the Movies) but in the lips of such wonderful players as Bogie, Irene Manning (looking very attractive here in lighting and costumes), Stanley Ridges (perfect as the criminal mastermind attorney double-dealer), Chick Chandler (giving the performance of his career as the charming, talented but ruthless dancer), Joseph Downing (a ruthless thug to end all ruthless thugs) and others we love every word of it.
The support cast is first-rate with Howard da Silva effective in a small role as Downing's running-mate, Murray Alper ditto as an unwilling stoolie, John Ridgely in a two-line bit as an eager but blind cop, Joseph King as the biding-his-time prosecutor, William Edmunds as the "No trouble in here please, Duke" sleazy cafe proprietor, Virginia Sale as a screamer and Ralph Dunn as the always-standing-around prison guard. Richard Travis is okay as the eager-beaver George though he has some sooky lines to say which he does not manage over well; and while Susan Peters has only a small part as his lady-love, she makes her court-room breakdown fairly convincing.
The plot is improbable, but we don't mind that so much as the fact that with the film three-quarters over, the scriptwriters try to insert a little cosy domesticity and comic relief, which they do very badly and ineptly and quite jarring the mood of the rest of the film. A little deft re-editing could completely eliminate these objectionable scenes and improve the film enormously.