Arthur Lubin isn’t a director much heralded by auteurists but he produced a consistently entertaining body of work over the years. He’s best known for his comedies but this enjoyable film noir showed he was a dab hand at other genres. It’s not one of the really black noirs along the lines of something like Detour and it lacks a name noir cast (it has Brian Donlevy, Helen Walker and Charles Coburn – oh, and a cameo from Sheilah Graham).
But it’s not bad – Donlevy is a businessman devoted to his wife who is having an affair and her boyfriend tries to kill him. The attempted murder sequence is particularly strong and Dovley gives a good performance, particularly when he realises his wife is a rat.
The main problem is overlength: it goes on for a bit too long – 111 minutes. Oh, and Anna May Wong is in it – playing a maid but a decent sized role and she looks pretty good.
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