Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 9
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 1
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 509
George Taylor (John Hodiak) is a war veteran suffering from amnesia with only two clues to his past: the bitter letter from a woman who hates him and another mysterious letter signed "Larry Cravat." Taylor goes to Los Angeles to meet Cravat. It turns out that Cravat is wanted for murder and the robbery of $2 million. George becomes involved with a singer, Christy (Nancy Guild) and is chased by mobsters while on a search for the stolen money. There ensue a series of chases, an interesting plot
Jan 1, 2003 Wide
Sep 6, 2005
Twentieth Century Fox
All Critics (9) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (11) | Rotten (1) | DVD (10)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's nervous nightmare (made in his first year of directing) isn't an all-hallowed member of the noir canon -- it's fairly slick, and Mankiewicz has little or no existentialist cred. But it sings the school's black-hearted lament.
As a straight piece of melodramatic staging, this Twentieth Century-Fox film is all right.
It's a decent picture, though the auteur touches (the visual stiffness, the tendency to drag scenes out long after the dramatic point has been made) are largely negative.
An engrossing crime thriller.
Out of this familiar premise, Mankiewicz has fashioned a classic film noir.
...an engaging noir...
Convolutions and narrative alleyways quickly capsize the boat of engrossing coherency...
It's smashingly photographed in the classic styles of the genre.
A no name cast conjures up some atmospheric thrills under the direction of Mankiewicz.
A quintessential amnesiac story.
Good wronged man noir. Hodiak is solid if somewhat stolid but he possesses the proper gravitas for the lead. The plot is explained a little too much rather than acted out visually but still a good film with an excellent supporting cast.
July 30, 2009
Super Reviewer
There's good film noir and bad film noir. This is bad film noir.
October 31, 2006Super Reviewer
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