Remember in "Grand Hotel" when the Doctor in the lobby mutters to himself that "People come and people go and nothing ever happens"? I thought it could apply to the desert motel in "One Crowded Night", but altered a little to, "nothing of great import ever happens".
This picture was on TCM this morning. I had never seen it and, since this was the tack-on day to the Independence Day weekend, I decided, what the heck - can't hurt. Well, I was right. It didn't hurt, and I got to see some Hollywood veteran bit players with something meatier than a walk-on or a face in the crowd.
It really wasn't bad, it just wasn't that good. There were some contrived plot devices to make the screenplay more interesting and it was very short at about 65 minutes. Not necessary to go into detail - several people stop at the motel and they have their own story to tell and matters are brought to a satisfactory conclusion. But there must be a basic flaw in a movie in which the cast of characters is more interesting than the plot. Watchable, if it's on during the next holiday weekend, but don't waste a tape.