Willing to give up everything for a sexy babe who isn't bad but yet drives him crazy, a tired and disillusioned cop (Edmund O'Brien) turns to murder in order to get out of a business he has grown to hate. When first seen, O'Brien has his arm tightly around a man he is guiding into an alley. A bullet goes off, an obvious blind man witnesses the killing, and a crowd forms, where O'Brien insists that he was trying to frighten the victim to stop with a bullet that went wild and hit its victim. O'Brien has conveniently removed a bag of money from the dead man's vest pocket which he does not turn over, and returns to his duty as normal. But there's another side to this crooked cop, and we see that when he visits scantily clad Marla English who is about to go from full dressed clerk to teddy wearing cigarette girl. O'Brien goes ballistic on seeing his girl dressed like this, manhandles her and orders her to leave immediately. Fellow cop John Agar suspects that something's amiss, and when the deaf man from the apartment above the murder alley suddenly turns up dead, there's an alleyway waiting for O'Brien one that will lead him to his doom.This crafty film noir is seen through the eyes of a bad guy, one who's supposed to be on the right side of the law, but disillusionment with law enforcement has pretty much destroyed. O'Brien is excellent as this multi faceted character who finds himself dealing not only with organized crime figures but old colleagues who obviously trusted him at one point. He has a horrifying sequence that is nearly as chilling as the pushing of the little old lady in the wheelchair down the stairs in "Kiss of Death". The whole film is set up like a time bomb ticking, just waiting for him to either explode himself or even accidentally step on one. The final reel is a chase sequence between O'Brien and both seedy criminals and his former co-workers, going from a busy community swimming pool to a housing community under construction. Everything about this film noir is top notch, tensely paced and quite the nail biter. Look for a bleached blonde Carolyn Jones as a party girl whom O'Brien meets in a dive bar.

Detective Barney Nolan's (Edmond O'Brien) name is a by word at the local police station for corruption and brutality. As Captain Gunnerson lists the shootings linked to Barney over the years, shootings that he always had an alibi for, a call comes through that a bookie has been shot in the back, down a deserted alley - and Barney has already put himself in the clear. This is a tension filled movie with the crime and O'Brien's character established before the opening credits. O'Brien also directed and is at pains to show that once, long ago, he was a caring cop. There is a scene involving a juvenile delinquent who is brought to the station belligerent and taciturn - he is turned over to Barney and within minutes he has delved into just what makes the boy tick. With just a few sentences he has shown that he once felt he could make a difference. There are little touches like this all through the film. Barney's "I want to make a difference" cop has been corrupted by the filth around him. Carolyn Jones is a stand out in the small role of a blonde lush who picks up Barney in a bar. She is just terrific, especially her "I'll show you how to look tough" speech but Barney's demeanour throughout the scene suggests "this is why I am what I am".Barney's real girl friend is Elizabeth Taylor clone Marla English who as Patty Winters finds a job as a cigarette girl - Barney doesn't like her parading herself but as she says "How am I ever going to keep a job if you keep beating up my bosses"!!! The murder victim is also missing $25,000 and it is for Patty that Barney has stolen it. In Barney's idea of the American dream - money equates to normality, and having a perfect little wife to go with the perfect house, and his eagerness as he shows Patty around the fully furnished project home is almost sad. But... also in the back yard is a perfect hiding place for the money which is the icing on the cake!! Hot on Barney's tail is Detective Mark Brewster (John Agar) once Barney's protégé but now, as the movie draws to it's conclusion, keen to bring the rogue cop to justice.The movie definitely has it's fair share of violence - a particularly brutal scene in a night club where two men corner him and the violence in which he pistol whips them has the patrons screaming in terror. There is also a witness to the original murder - a deaf mute (David Hughes) who is keen to write down all he knows about the crime to any policeman who will listen but unfortunately the station sends Barney!!! Apart from a few preachy speeches and an obvious "gaffe" where a boon microphone shadow shows up on a white wall this is a terrific film with marvellous location shooting, including a climatic shoot out at a local swimming baths.

Antihero star/director O'Brien does a good job. He plays a real beast -- a crooked cop who will do the lowest of the low.Marla English, as his girlfriend, is pretty and eefftive enough. She looks a lot like Elizabeth Taylor at that time.It's unusually brutal for its time but not espcially good.

I cannot say that this is one of the better films noir, but it's a good example of the way this kind of film was drifting in the early fifties: away from the studios; toward independent production; more cars, fewer subways; a vaguely documentary air, ala Jack Webb, rather than the more elegant stylization we associate with the forties; more outdoor scenes, fewer cramped rooms; and overall a movement away from the Gothic and toward a more contemporary, which is to say paranoid mood. Having said this, it ain't a bad picture. Edmond O'Brien (who also had a hand behind the camera) plays a basically decent and fair cop who gives in to temptation and steals some money from a bad guy. He pays dearly for his transgression. O'Brien is edgier and tougher than usual; the rest of the cast is okay. This is an extremely watchable film. It involves you more than most police thrillers. I enjoyed it thoroughly.