This simply wonderful little thriller takes the usually doom-laden and fatalistic film noir genre to greater depths of doom and fatalism than almost any other. And this ultra-cheaply and quickly made PRC production is one of the greats.
The plot is heavily reliant on absurd coincidences and Tom Neal's character makes some ridiculous decisions - but if you are caught up by the film (and you should be pretty quickly), then it is very easy to go along with them. The first half achieves a marvellous atmosphere thanks to Edgar Ulmer's stylish direction, but it really takes off about half way through when Ann Savage shows up...
Ms Savage here plays a femme fatale, the kind of femme fatale who makes Godzilla look like a new-born kitten, who makes Leatherface from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" look like Bugs Bunny, who makes...well, let's just say she's quite a hard lady. When she hitches a lift with Neal, she sits in the car with him silently looking ahead as he talks to her. Then she suddenly turns with a quick bird-like movement and spits out some vicious line at him. It's one of the scariest brief moments you'll ever see in any film. Her cold eyes can chill the marrow of anyone, with just one glance. Medusa could take lessons from her. I think Ulmer may have encouraged her to play the part with those quick bird-like movements too, as you can see that kind of thing several times more in her performance. What kind of bird? Probably a vulture!
Anyway, from that moment we are sure that Neal is utterly and completely doomed - and we are already perfectly aware that he isn't doing too well so far...
It is the kind of film which just gets better and better as it goes along. OK, it could have done without the very last scene, which people these days may forget HAD to be there to appease the demands of the censors in those days that miscreants (even vaguely unwilling ones) must be seen to get their comeuppance at the end.
Possibly the greatest B movie ever made, certainly in the top three - I love this film!
The plot is heavily reliant on absurd coincidences and Tom Neal's character makes some ridiculous decisions - but if you are caught up by the film (and you should be pretty quickly), then it is very easy to go along with them. The first half achieves a marvellous atmosphere thanks to Edgar Ulmer's stylish direction, but it really takes off about half way through when Ann Savage shows up...
Ms Savage here plays a femme fatale, the kind of femme fatale who makes Godzilla look like a new-born kitten, who makes Leatherface from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" look like Bugs Bunny, who makes...well, let's just say she's quite a hard lady. When she hitches a lift with Neal, she sits in the car with him silently looking ahead as he talks to her. Then she suddenly turns with a quick bird-like movement and spits out some vicious line at him. It's one of the scariest brief moments you'll ever see in any film. Her cold eyes can chill the marrow of anyone, with just one glance. Medusa could take lessons from her. I think Ulmer may have encouraged her to play the part with those quick bird-like movements too, as you can see that kind of thing several times more in her performance. What kind of bird? Probably a vulture!
Anyway, from that moment we are sure that Neal is utterly and completely doomed - and we are already perfectly aware that he isn't doing too well so far...
It is the kind of film which just gets better and better as it goes along. OK, it could have done without the very last scene, which people these days may forget HAD to be there to appease the demands of the censors in those days that miscreants (even vaguely unwilling ones) must be seen to get their comeuppance at the end.
Possibly the greatest B movie ever made, certainly in the top three - I love this film!
Top Box Office
- 1.$70.6M
- 2.$35.2M
- 3.$23.4M
- 4.$3.1M
- 5.$2.8M
- 6.$2.7M
- 7.$2.2M
- 8.$2.2M
- 9.$2.2M
- 10.$1.1M