![]() Perhaps I too was suckered by Wyatt's portrayal into thinking that maybe they were right for each other and they were only out to seek happiness with each other. I noticed as I watched that I was rooting for him to get away with it until his brother figured out the lie. Which brings us to the question being begged, did Cobb turn away understanding he was fooled by her and wouldn't do it again, or if he had the chance would he do it all over for her and be sucker punched again? A great well played movie. She plays a self interested aristocrat who can buy her way confidently out of any situation, which is why at the end with her new boyfriend, presumably her attorney who has just posted her bail and gotten her out of jail in moments of her getting there as Cobb is being waltzed in, she isn't fatalistic at all, she struts it like she owns it, which is why instead of her turning to her new boyfriend to have him light the cigarette for her, she turns to Cobb who has deftly interupted the new boyfriend with his gesture to offer a cig to her, and she looks at him like she still owns him and knows it and is proud to see him show his utter servilitude to her. Jane Wyatt doesn't play a fem fatale here as indicated in previous reviews but I can understand how you might expect that stance given the film type. ![]() The irony settles in with him as he meets his fate with understanding. Cobb is so tough he can smile at himself, that she was so shallow he fell for her nonetheless. And then in the denouement, the exchange between Cobb and Wyatt as she says "light me a cigarette darling" to her apparently new boyfriend as they waltz up in a cavalier nonchalant, haven't a care in the world kind of way. And this moment lingers suspensefully, and you're blind sided by the ending which comes suddenly. It certainly looks as if it is going to give them away by the way it finds itself airborn at just the right moment. Then watch the character played by an inanimate object, the scarf. Eating crow? No, it's like sharing your soda with a buddy and not wiping it off first, gutsy, and yeh we smoke cigarettes, even if it crosses lines that shouldn't be crossed, defiant and proud of it. How tough can you get? When they interrogate Nito, listen for the exchange, "Nito relax have a cigarette", and Lee hands out his pack to him, Nito replies, "No thanks, I have my own." Then Nito reaches into his pocket to fetch his pack and comes up empty and tosses his pack aside, Lee throws his pack on the table, Nito picks it up and has one of Lee's after all. I don't mind the crackling somehow that adds to the effect. When you think of the kind of noir heroine who can corrupt a good professional, think of Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. Which might have been okay if she were a great beauty. I saw a petulant, fussy little bridge-player. And Jane Wyatt? Where is the smoldering seductress who can lure a good cop to break the law and give up his career and lie to his brother? I didn't see anything smoldering there nothing hotter than a grilled cheese sandwich. He wasn't torn the way he should have been going over to the dark side like that. Cobb a lot, but I didn't see much character development here. He was a very talened actor who didn't get the leading man roles he deserved after his Oscar-nominated performance in "Rope." He should have gone up from there, but I see that he became a TV actor and died tragically of a punctured lung at age 52. I thought he was one perfect note in this film he made a lot out of his supporting role. I like this one, the good guy was the new detective, but he bothered me like he did the star of the show. The finest performance was from the guy who was getting framed. The brother put off his marriage and time with his love to get to the killer, the poor innocent guy turned false accuser to protect this fresh widow. And the antaganist and protaganist were both working hard at hiding the truth and the other and getting to it. Why did the cop bother? Because to many prefer more than just pink. But, really, even though he convinsed me that she was the problem and started to route for her and the man she leaped to for her affection, But it was doomed and couldn't be a great love affair because they had to much to worry about especially being seen together. ![]() This noir film grasped my attention to the end, I didn't make it all the way through on Cherade, Carey Grant and Audrey Hepburn reviews were all a 5 but it didnt hold me like this B film from San Francisco which was delightful at first with a guy leaving his wife telling her to take him out of her will because it might irk her on her pink cloud when she leaves this world if he was left anything and thanking her for not closing his checking account out so he had enough to buy a ticket to fly away from life withher and her rich house that he slept in.
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