Joseph L. Mankiewicz's nervous nightmare (made in his first year of directing) isn't an all-hallowed member of the noir canon -- it's fairly slick, and Mankiewicz has little or no existentialist cred. But it sings the school's black-hearted lament.

Out of this familiar premise, Mankiewicz has fashioned a classic film noir.

As a straight piece of melodramatic staging, this Twentieth Century-Fox film is all right.

An engrossing crime thriller.