Bargain basement filmmaker Edgar Ulmer offers up a fetish laden noir of probably a 10 day shooting schedule with reasonable facsimiles of moments from Laura, Shadow of a Doubt, Out of the Past and Chinatown to present the viewer with a rather breezy run through police corruption and procedural abuse. It's quite a bargain for the price.

Straight arrow homicide detective Ray Patrick is on a winning streak and up for a promotion when his next case gets compromised by a dame he feels he railroaded and now wants to clear. But she wears him down with her plea of innocence and they illegally set off to find the guilty party his commanding officer in pursuit.

In spite of the incredulous plot Ulmer once again, with little, works wonders with cast and crucial tight editing that offers momentary top tier suspense at fire sale prices.

As no nonsense dick gone rogue Paul Langton is no Mitch or Dana Andrews in Laura but he expresses the same veneer and a nebulous incertitude that bedevils them; in this case by a blonde fatale, no Jane Greer but the tragic Barbara Payton, a walking noir reality as convincing innocent. There's also some solid small bits with Kate McKenna as witness Miss Sparrow stealing both her brief scenes.

Ulmer for his part packs a tremendous amount of seedy backdrop to the story as Patrick steps on rights ( no one ever thinks to ask for a lawyer in the face of gross malfeasance) and goes through women's underwear draws with abandon in the pursuit of justice, making it clear he is not interested. Form wise Ulmer does not waste time and he offers up some fine montage, provocative inferences and enough subtle deceptions to make this a bit of an enjoyable overachiever.

The other reviewer did not have anything good to say about this movie. Well, it is cheaply made and obviously, Edward Ulmer didn't have much of a budget. He mostly directed B-movies anyway. However, this was one of his later films and his star was Barbara Payton. Her sad sad life was on the down-swing at the time she did this, her final film. She was only 28 years old and this marked the end of her career which had started only five years earlier. If you watch this film, you will see a very good performance by Barbara Payton. This may not be a true film-noir, but it is a dark, downbeat drama with a great musical score. I believe this is worth 77 minutes of viewing time. Enjoy!

***SPOILERS*** Given the assignment to bring convicted murderess Eden Lane, Barbara Payton, to the city lock-up the detective Ray Patrick, Paul Langton, escorting her takes a powder together Eden after she supposedly saw the man, Frank Deane, that she was accused of murdering as she and Patrick were on their way by train back to state prison. This has Det. Patrick's good friend and boss Capt.Bert Rawley,Robert Shayne, mad as hell in allowing against his better judgment to have him escort her knowing that being so drop dead gorgeous Eden can work of his heartstrings and have him do, like a love sick puppy, anything that she wants.

Despite dropping his guard and planning to later drop his pants, in romancing Eden, it turns out that Det. Patrick's believing Eden's story that her murder victim was in fact alive turns out to have some truth to it. Enough truth that the outraged Capt. Rawley gives him an additional 24 hours to find Deane's killer if in fact there was one. What later comes out in the wash is that someone was murdered in all this confusion but it wasn't Dean and the person who murdered him and his accomplice who was later to murder Eden's former roommate Pasty Flint, Tracy Roberts, who turned out to be the real culprits in all this. As for Eden who was facing the San Quentin gas chamber she turned out to be the innocent victim in all this confusing mess!

One of the last films that the beautiful Barbara Payton stared in before she ended up addicted on drugs and turning tricks to support her habit that eventually lead to her untimely death at the age of 39 in 1966. Decent 1950's film noir with Det. Patrick at first not believing Eden's story that Frank Dean was still alive but little by little realizing that she was in fact telling the truth. That to the point where he was willing to not only end up losing his job but ending up behind bars for helping a fugitive from justice escape justice. Justice was indeed served when the real killer or killers blew their cover and ended up behind bars for their crimes. Crimes that turned out to be independent of each other.