WORST MOVIE EVER. *EVER*! Stockholm Syndrome movie. Rape victim runs away then is held hostage by a man who saves her from possibly drowning herself. I won't go further. This has the *single worst* ending in movie history. This movie is SICKNESS. AVOID it - anybody who thinks it's a classic can go to HELL.

The most convoluted mess of a film noir movie I've just ever seen. I honestly can't believe this movie is highly regarded by ANYBODY. There is the combination used of both the scenes taking place at the time and tons and TONS of stories told in flashbacks. New characters are brought in and we're supposed to be able to gather all this information and STILL be in some sort of state where we're caring about what happens to...WHO?!?? I mean, Barbara Stanwyck was a great, great actress - but see her in Double Indemnity, see her in The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers, my God, see her in ROUSTABOUT before this! And Burt Lancaster, he's always great - except in this; I love seeing him in so many movies - Brute Force, Elmer Gantry, Atlantic City, Birdman Of Alcatraz, too many to mention - this is the first time I've seen him come off fairly stiff, but then, he had nothing to work with! If you want to see Burt in a film noir, there's The Killers, Criss Cross, and Brute Force, a prison noir, those are all totally great movies. I Walk Alone is another very good one. (Ironically, the last two movies I saw before this were The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers - which stars Van Heflin and Lizabeth Scott, with Barbara a lesser role in it [and Kirk Douglas a smaller one - and who's on the covers usually? the latter two], and before that I Walk Alone). If you want a great film noir, there's no shortage of them - The Big Heat, Out Of The Past, God there's so many....Too Late For Tears, Gun Crazy, there's tons. THIS is not one of them. There's some night camera work, a decent performance by Stanwyck, and a completely impossible-to-follow script. It's just not worth watching. If you want to take a chance, it's your right. But be forewarned from a fan of film noirs AND these performers - I HATED this movie. It was a radio play stuffed with SO much padding, it became meaningless, at least in the emotional sense one gets watching a movie. What a shame. All that talent wasted. And time too..... I want the price of my rental back........

Pathetic excuse for a movie, if you're looking for a good De Niro movie or good De Palma one you won't get it here, Jennifer Salt is wasted too, this movie attempts to have both comedy (in the first half or less), with De Niro as a peeping tom trying to make porn from his window across from Salt's character, and then it switches into this thing about the Black Panther movement, and the two parts don't work at ALL. This *STINKS*!!!!! One of the five worst movies I've ever seen. Pure garbage.

This movie which gets a majority of rave reviews is not something that in any way pulled at my heartstrings, as one reviewer stated it would, it instead was designed SO MUCH to do that, that it had no effect at all - except making me feel INCREDIBLY depressed - for a moment, at times - esp. early on, as for when it went on, I wondered "WHEN is it going to effect me, like everybody else?" This is CONTRIVED, overly MELODRAMATIC piece of garbage that only those who like their tragedy soaked in syrup will find this a moving movie in any way other than depressing - and even that wears off after a while, because it hits you over the head with it. One TERRIBLE movie.