Howard Duff and Ida Lupino were one of the more talented teams in Hollywood history. This film does not really show their unique talents; especially those of Lupino, who was one of the smartest women in Hollywood at the time. A good-looking woman with great writing talent is not a common occurrence. There is a nice turn by Steve Cochran as well.This is not pure noir; it really isn't that dark, but it is an interesting plot. Any cop recovering a ton of money would have to be tempted to dip into the cash. This is a nice, small, gritty film that highlights the future potential of both Duff and Lupino. She was truly a gifted actress and writer.

***SPOILERS*** One of director Don Siegel of "Dirty Harry" fame earliest work involves a robbery in NYC of $300,000.00 that ended showing up, the stolen cash that is, in LA some 3,000 miles away. With LAPD detectives Carl Bruner, Steve Cochran, and Jack Farnham, Howard Duff, on the case they track down a 50 dollar bill from the robbery to a night club that it's top performer singer Lili Marlow, Ida Lupino, got as a tip from one of the customers there.It soon becomes obvious that the person who gave Lili the fifty was involved in the robbery and both Det. Bruner & Farnham together with Lili who can identify him stake out the Hollywood Race Track where he's known to spend his spare time and money, the stolen money, at.Track down the person they do when he makes a run for it in his car and ends up driving off the road killing himself.It's when the stolen money is found hidden in a safe box in the fugitive from justice, George Docksharden, car that Det. Bruner gets the idea of taking a large amount of it,$80,000.00, for himself and his partner, in order to keep him quite, Det. Farnham. Who's going to miss it anyway since no one has any idea of how much Docksharden spent anyway.Hiding the cash in a trailer park at lot #36 it seems that no one will find out what the two did even though honest cop and family man Jack Farnham has second thought about all this.***SPOILERS*** As things soon turn out the dead Dockshader had a partner in the $300,000.00 robbery who now want's his cut of the money. And he knows who has it Detectives Bruner & Farnham. And is also more then willing to expose their crime to their boss in the LAPD Capt. Michaels, Dean Jagger, if he doesn't get it! Unexpected final that will blow you away in how the two got caught in the act of returning the $80,000.00 that they stole to the man who they planned to double-cross who was blackmailing them. Like the saying goes "Crime doesn't Pay" it's only those who commit it that do.

Top notch direction by Don Siegel and very good 1950s film noir. Los Angeles detectives, Cal Bruner(Steve Cochran) and Jack Farnham(Howard Duff)come across $300,000 in stolen money. The suspected robber is killed in a high speed car chase and loose greenbacks scatter from a box thrown from the vehicle. Cal decides to pocket a few bundles in hopes of keeping up with his girlfriend Lilli's(Ida Lupino)spending habits. Jack, a family man, could use extra cash, but nixes what his partner has done. Pleading with Cal is not working, because he wants to make a fast getaway out of the country with his night club singer girlfriend. Capt. Michaels(Dean Jagger)has a suspicion something isn't right with his detectives, who are being blackmailed over the stashed cash. You have to listen close to see how the number 36 fits into the film's title. Very good acting and believable screenplay co-written by Lupino. Other players in this crime drama: Dorothy Malone, Kenneth Patterson, Dabbs Greer and Richard Deacon.

Co-screenwriter and star Ida Lupino wrote this tale of ambition with former husband (and producer) Collier Young. One of the costars is Howard Duff, her current husband, though in the film he's married to Dorothy Malone and his LA detective partner Steve Cochran is Lupino's love interest.***CONTAINS SPOILERS****The plot revolves around a cache of stolen, marked bills that begin turning up in LA, a year after being lifted in New York City. Lupino plays a down on her luck lounge singer in a class B type bar, who'd been tipped a marked bill by a boozy customer. She reluctantly agrees to go on stake outs at various racetracks with the boys; she also resigns herself to the affections of Cochran.After some time she spots the bad guy leaving the racetrack parking lot, a car chase and crash ensues and at the crash site, bad cop Cochran pockets some of the loot, to the dismay of good cop partner Duff. Cochran uses the singer's longing for a better life and diamonds as his motive. Then comes clean and admits to wanting a better life for himself.I won't divulge the ending, but good does triumph over evil.The movie is quite well directed by Don Siegel, though both co-writers and producers (Filmways was Lupino's studio) were said to have given him fits. Not being under a major studio's restraints a few things got passed by the censors. One is a scene with husband and wife (Duff and Malone) conversing in their bed, not the standard separate twin beds all movies showed at the time.Another is the Lupino-Cochran relationship. Frankly, he generally treats her like dirt, part of his character's ambition; part of her knowing that she's fraying at the edges. She's still attractive, but for how long? She's not desperate, but how far away is she from it? He's abusive and it seems to turn her on.Not great, but entertaining.