This movie feels like the screenwriter and director were working from a check list of film noir elements and wanted to make sure they didn't miss any. There are lots of plot twists, like in many noirs, but so many of them make no sense, and seem to be thrown in just for effect. The story has very little internal logic, in addition to a player piano that seems to magically transport itself from one location to another. (as is pointed out in the goofs section). There's also the fact that the heroine, played by Joyce MacKenzie, suddenly wants to marry Hurd Hatfield's character, despite them having barely more than one scene together. And how did she not realize that he was likely in on the criminal enterprise with Armitage, since they were such close business partners?
The opening sequence of the movie is actually pretty nifty, with a murder being committed during a 5 minute movie intermission, but that's never than brought into the story to be used as the killers' alibi. There are other scenes in the movie that are good by themselves, but add nothing to the overall story.
Another liability is the acting. Joyce MacKenzie is pretty wooden, and you never really get emotionally involved in what she's going through in trying to track down her father's killer. Albert Dekker is usually excellent, but here he seems to veer between playing his character as a sinister tough guy and a comic buffoon. Stanley Clements is an actor I know from the later (and pretty dreadful) Bowery Boys movies, and I could never really believe him as a killer, or as a self-deluded would-be ladies' man. (It's the kind of part that Elisha Cook did much better).
I'm being generous in giving this 6 stars, in part because I know how hard it is to work with such a limited budget, but I really would only recommend this to hardcore fans of the genre. One small thing of note, to me, anyway. There's a scene in the nightclub ladies' lounge in which an actress named Norma Vance, credited as "Fran - Inebriated Lady," does a nice little comic turn as a cynical, wise cracking blonde. According to IMDB, that was her one and only film appearance ever. I always wonder about things like that. How does an actor come out of nowhere, score one part, and then completely disappear?
The opening sequence of the movie is actually pretty nifty, with a murder being committed during a 5 minute movie intermission, but that's never than brought into the story to be used as the killers' alibi. There are other scenes in the movie that are good by themselves, but add nothing to the overall story.
Another liability is the acting. Joyce MacKenzie is pretty wooden, and you never really get emotionally involved in what she's going through in trying to track down her father's killer. Albert Dekker is usually excellent, but here he seems to veer between playing his character as a sinister tough guy and a comic buffoon. Stanley Clements is an actor I know from the later (and pretty dreadful) Bowery Boys movies, and I could never really believe him as a killer, or as a self-deluded would-be ladies' man. (It's the kind of part that Elisha Cook did much better).
I'm being generous in giving this 6 stars, in part because I know how hard it is to work with such a limited budget, but I really would only recommend this to hardcore fans of the genre. One small thing of note, to me, anyway. There's a scene in the nightclub ladies' lounge in which an actress named Norma Vance, credited as "Fran - Inebriated Lady," does a nice little comic turn as a cynical, wise cracking blonde. According to IMDB, that was her one and only film appearance ever. I always wonder about things like that. How does an actor come out of nowhere, score one part, and then completely disappear?