Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.
Fritz Lang's taut noir thriller benefits from strong lead performances by Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett, who bring genuine chemistry and believability to a story of an ordinary man sliding into extraordinary danger. The plot is engaging and well-constructed for its genre, though not particularly groundbreaking by noir standards. The cinematography is competent and atmospheric without reaching the stylistic heights of Lang's best work. The film's most distinctive element is its controversial ending, which divides audiences — some find it a clever meta-twist, others find it a cheat that undercuts the tension built throughout. Novelty is moderate; it works well within the noir framework but doesn't radically distinguish itself from the cycle of similar films of the era.