Clifford Odets' Clash by Night, presented on Broadway over a decade earlier, reaches the screen in a rather aimless drama of lust and passion.

The Clifford Odets screenplay seems to have roused the realist in director Fritz Lang: the backwater atmosphere is as authentic as it is oppressive.

A very Langian picture of the dangerous undercurrents in emotional relationships, excellently acted by the three principals.

Simply serviceable as a scandalous seaside noir.