Have not caught this movie noir yet, but the reviews are meh. Filmed in ten days, notable problems mentioned with the film include lackluster direction, stifled acting, and lack of suspense. It’s use of San Francisco landmarks and its depiction of a city-wide manhunt provide a unique period snapshot for the city in the early 1950s (San Francisco Film Locations). The movie also made use of voice-over narration that early 50s movies seemed to love. Here it’s more of the documentary-styled type (used in crime dramas) instead of the character-driven type (like in Sunset Boulevard). Noir movies especially used the voice-over narrator to instill a sense of reflection, and inspection, into the private gumshoe’s mind and viewpoint. See Jessica Jones for a good example of its modern usage. Sonny Tufts (yeah, that guy in Cat-Women of the Moon), had a good career going until his slide into alcoholism, making the 1950s and beyond one, long, downhill run. This period of his life led eventually led to his name becoming a punchline for joking, with it mentioned in such places as The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and My Mother the Car. Marjorie Steele did only four movies before moving on to a career in sculpting and painting.
