This is a moderately successful noir film that has some snappy dialog and good performances by Dick Powel, Raymond Burr and Jane Wyatt. But Elizabeth Scott is atrocious. She is given one of the most meaty roles of her career and she gives one of the most wooden and passionless performances I have ever seen by a female actor. There were so many female actors of the time who could have been selected for this role and given much better performances. The standout in the film is Raymond Burr. He is brilliant and manages to act rings around Scott when they are in any scenes together. IT is a well made film and well directed. But Scott is not up to the job. It would be nice if it was remade with a better actor in the starring role.

Insurance Fraud Investigator Dick Powell (John) is fed up with his life. He has a perfect wife in Jane Wyatt (Sue) and a son, a good job and everything is just the same - and it's stale. It's doing his head in. One day he arrives at the office and takes over a case from private investigator Raymond Burr (MacDonald) which involves retrieving goods from Lizabeth Scott (Mona). Her boyfriend Byron Barr (Smiley) bought her gifts with the proceeds of an insurance scam and he is currently serving time in jail for it. Still, Powell must do his job and take back anything bought with the proceeds of the crime. Just one problem, Lizabeth Scott is a babe and he falls in love with her. As does the thuggish Raymond Burr. That's all three male characters in love with the same girl and the boyfriend is due out of prison shortly.It's an ok film that doesn't quite make it into the definite solid good category but it's worth a watch and keeping onto for a future viewing. The cast are good apart from Barr who isn't. He overacts. The film has a message of forgiveness and puts forward the reality that everything in life just doesn't get neatly resolved. It scores a point for that and this gives Wyatt her best moments.What do you do if you are fed up with the way your life is going? Don't do what Powell does. Just stick with that well-paid job and crack on. Then you can dream of a lovely retirement. Err...........on second thoughts.......break free...go for it......! This film hints that things may work out ok even if you screw up.

A crime drama with Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Burr (who got billed 4th, but plays the 2nd lead as a psychotic detective), and directed by Toth, and the foremost highlight is the style in which the leading character is played, an acting style which very much grounds the events and balances the story; the character's initial sloth doesn't involve despair and hopelessness, so that the two types of characters, the settled bourgeois and the feverish oddballs (the mistress and the detective) don't reach each other _innerly. But this isn't inadvertent and also suits the plot's realism, as the nascent liaison is crippled, disrupted, repressed, almost like stillborn. Burr provides an astonishing performance (that makes Mitchum's otherwise deservedly celebrated pair of kindred roles seem childish and harmless by comparison).Acknowledging the awesomeness of Toth's crime movie, the decisiveness of Burr's input has to be championed as well; his performance earns him a special merit. He makes this movie what it is. His handsomeness benefited of intelligence, burliness and glamour. He takes part in making this movie a masterpiece from the standpoint of enjoyment.The movie has a small cast, and the characters define each other: how Burr and Powell are defined by the woman, how she's defined by the detective. The characters are defined mutually: the weird detective, by the woman; the leading character, also by her. And she's defined by the detective. The actors' interplay has been as challenging as it's enthralling.Powell reminded me of B. Willis, with his playful, amused, lightly ironic behavior, as in the family breakfast scene, or the evening reading; he brings his ease so that the character seems good-_natured rather than bored, he makes an almost cheerful bourgeois, more impassible than resigned (his avowal that he lacks ease would of suited more a character played by Stewart or G. Peck or someone abler of gloom). The acting styles are highly contrasting: Powell's initial calm and temperate sloth, then his indecisiveness, irresoluteness after wishing to confess that he has a family, and Lizabeth Scott and Burr's feverishness, his with that sharp artistic intelligence that made meaningful each role he has ever got. Here, his role is quite large.The direction is masterly, and gives the movie its timelessness; Toth was one of the masters of the B cinema, revered by some, and his movies are the reward of the true movie buffs. The highlight scene to me is the lovers' meeting after he has recovered from the blows and she has found out that he has a family, that scene is so reasonably treated.The cast choice proved refreshing, mainly by the unconventional lead. The romance seems a whim rather than a doomed liaison. The plot may seem a bourgeois misadventure, like in 'Cape Fear', with a bourgeois confronting the underworld, meeting and facing the disinherited, and indeed the romance remains crippled in a nascent phase, begins and is stifled, gets crippled, crushed, repressed, and perhaps this makes the emotional drive so true and effective.

PITFALL - 1948 This rather chilling Andre De Toth directed film noir stars Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt and at his sleazy best, Raymond Burr.Insurance claims adjuster Powell is tired of his job and the everyday drudgery that is his daily life. Get up, have breakfast, kiss the wife, send the son to school, go to work and so and so on.This changes when he gets involved in a situation that shows just how good he has it. It all starts with a visit from a seedy Private Investigator his firm uses. The Investigator, Raymond Burr, has found some assets a jailed embezzler, Byron Barr, has. These include some jewels, a fur coat and a speed boat all given as gifts to his girl, Lizabeth Scott.The oily Burr tells Powell that Scott is a hot tomato and he is going to give her try himself. Powell now has to visit Scott to get the return of the items. They were bought with stolen cash, so they belong to the insurance company.Scott puts up a bit of resistance at first but knows she can't win. She calls Powell a "small man with a briefcase" loser. This hits Powell rather hard, as this is just how he sees himself. Powell softens a bit when Scott takes him to see the little speedboat she was given by Barr. She loves the little thing and takes Powell out for a spin. Powell decides to not mention the boat on his list of reclaimed items. The worm is starting to turn.Powell is soon stepping out with Scott behind his wife, Jane Wyatt's back. Powell is enjoying himself, but of course this does not last for long. P.I. slime-ball Burr, has been keeping an eye on Miss Scott for reasons of his own. He has decided that she would look perfect on his arm. He has been spying on Scott and knows all about Powell and Scott's "meetings".Burr pays a visit to Powell at his office and warns Powell off seeing any more of Scott. Powell tells Burr to buzz off and mind his own business. Needless to say, Burr does no such thing. He jumps Powell outside Powell's house and gives him a first rate beating. Powell tells wife Wyatt that he had been mugged, and will be staying home from the office for a few days.When Powell does not show for their "meeting", Scott calls his office. When she hears that Powell is ill and staying home for a few days, Scott decides to pay him a visit. Needless to say she runs into Powell's wife at the house. Scott plays it cool and does not spill about Powell and herself stepping out.Scott does however give Powell the heave ho at their next "meeting". Married men are not her thing. This is fine till Burr pushes his way into Scott's life. The bozo will not take no for an answer. He even threatens to inform Powell's wife about Scott's and Powell's tryst. Burr figures, rightly, that Scott likes Powell and would not want to see his life ruined.Scott contacts Powell and passes on what Burr had said. Powell now pays Burr a visit and gives him a return beating. He also warns Burr that if he pulls anymore nonsense, Powell will kill him. "Stay away from me, and stay away from Scott!" Needless to say slime-ball Burr has no intention of doing this. He pays a jail-house visit to Scott's ex, Byron Barr. Barr is up for release soon, and Burr fills his head with tales of Powell and Scott hitting it off.Of course we all know where this is going once Barr gets out of the crowbar hotel. Barr hits Scott's apartment for a bit of face to face with Scott. All he asks are questions about Powell. He storms out to a waiting Burr, who slips him a gun and a bottle. Burr then drops Barr off at Powell's suburban home. Scott calls Powell and warns him that Barr is out for blood.Powell digs out his own weapon and calmly waits. Barr shows and of course tries to break in. Not a good idea as Powell shoots first and best. The Police are called and the Barr is hauled off to the morgue.Burr now shows up at Scott's place with a big grin. He figures that he has disposed of both rivals for Scott's affections. Not so, as it turns out. Scott, seeing no way out of the mess, takes her own gun and gives Mister Burr some un-needed ventilation. Again the Police are called. Burr is still alive, but just barely.While Powell gets off on self defence, Scott is taken in, for murder if Burr dies, for attempted murder if he lives.Powell comes clean with wife Wyatt about the whole mess. Powell expects to get the boot from the home. Wyatt however decides to forgive, but not forget. Powell had had everything he needed before all this. What a dope, he thinks to himself.The cast is all quite good here, though Jane Wyatt is somewhat under used. Powell, Scott and especially, Raymond Burr, all turn in excellent performances. Burr is as always great at these sleazy roles, the perfect noir heavy.The director, Andre De Toth, only made a couple of film noir, this one and the equally good, CRIME WAVE. He should have been offered more based on these two films.The director of photography, Harry J Wild worked with Powell on three other films, MURDER MY SWEET, STATION WEST and CORNERED. Wild was also involved as the cinematographer on the film noir, MACAO, HIS KIND OF WOMAN, STRANGE BARGAIN, THE THREAT, THE BIG STEAL, JOHNNY ANGEL, THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME and NOCTURNE.This one is well worth spending 86 minutes on.