Girls, guns, fists, and fedoras abound in Mickey Spillane's hard-boiled yarn about an amnesiac (Anthony Quinn) who can't remember if he stole a quarter mil from his boss (a doddering Charles Coburn) or killed the town's D.A. ...not to mention the fact that his girl went and got plastic surgery, so he doesn't know who she is, either. Could it be Venus (a smoking hot Peggie Castle) or one of the other babes who swarm around the craggy Quinn like moths to a flame when he's not dodging bullets? Far-fetched fun for fans of obscure fifties noir with as much sex & violence as the Code allowed -and some of it is quite surreal, especially a bound & gagged Castle crawling across the floor as if in an S&M fever dream.Director Saville and leading lady Castle filmed Mickey Spillane's I, THE JURY the year before (in 3D, no less) but that "Mike Hammer" mystery was more of a sucker punch thanks to Biff Elliot's powder puff PI. It's too bad he and Tony hadn't traded films...

With a poll coming up on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best titles of 1954,I started to search around for near-forgotten Film Noirs to view.With having heard about lead actor Anthony Quinn,I was thrilled to stumble up on a title,which would hopefully make the long wait I've had of seeing Quinn on screen something that was worth waiting for.The plot:Hitch-hiking Johnny McBride gets a lift from a driver,who ends up crashing his car and leaving McBride in a coma for 2 years.2 Years later:Waking up from the coma McBride discovers that along with his finger prints having been burnt off in the crash,that he is also suffering from amnesia,with any type of ID that McBride owned having been burnt in the crash.Walking out of hospital at last,McBride starts attempting to put his life back together.Meeting 2 people who claim to be friends,McBride is told to go to a small town,due to a shop in the area having a photo of him.Unknown to McBride,the 2 friends are actually people who want to claim a reward over McBride being linked to a bank robbery and a murder.Reaching the town,McBride soon run into 2 police officers who arrest him for murder.With their main piece of evidence being the finger prints on a gun that McBride used to rob a bank that he worked at,the cops are horrified to discover,that all of McBride's finger prints have been burnt off.Horrified by the allegations,McBride decides that he has waited long enough to start search around the city's underground,in the hope of uncovering his long forgotten past.View on the film:For their adaptation of Mickey Spillane's novel,writers Alan Green and Lesser Samuels smartly keep the audiences unrevealing of the past at the same distance that McBride is heading towards,which allow for each of the films sharp twist & turns to strike the viewer with the same shock that they hit McBride with.Whilst the ending is disappointingly up- beat,for the rest of the running time,the writers create a wonderfully grim Film Noir world.Giving some strong hints that McBride has shell shock from serving time in the war as he obsessively searches for his near-mythical dame,the writers paint the world that McBride attempts to remember as one that's rotten to the core,as McBride discovers to his horror that he may be linked to an underworld which has got a firm grip on the entire city.Wrapping the city in shadows as McBride goes in search of his past, director Victor Saville and cinematographer Franz Planer build an atmospheric city which is covered in dirt,with Savile and Planer making every street look like it has been infected with the characters morals,as each building appears to be rotting away.Along with the filthy Film Noir streets,Savile and Planer cake McBride's (played by an amazing,rough Anthony Quinn) in sweat,which drips across the floor as he delves deeper into the underbelly of the city and uncovers the past which he has long waited to find.

Mickey Spillane was far better than what people use to give him credit for. His tough guys and sexy, deadly women gave a new life to the private eye novels of the fifties. This is a surprisingly good, forgotten film directed by Victor Saville, who also directed the famous flop "The Silver Chalice". Also a top cinematographer Franz Planer. The story is about Johnny McBride (Anthony Quinn), a man that lost his memory and also his fingerprints. McBride was involved in stealing 250000 dollars from a bank, together with a woman named Vera, who changed her looks and name. There are two remarkable moments in the film, first when the gangster Servo (Gene Evans) has all four women suspected of being Vera together, and then when the beautiful Venus (Peggy Castle) with long blond hair,tied up, drags herself to kiss McBride. Spillane's characters belong to a fantasy pulp, world and there resides their charm.

A well directed, well photographed little known gem of a film.Great role for Quinn who would have made a great Mike Hammer. His primitive face and huge hands seem prepared for instant violence. In spite of being a low budget film, the directing, acting and photography seems superior than that better known B classic 'Detour'. Gene Evans and Charles Coburn always took their character roles seriously and seemed incapable of bad performances. The lovely ballad that plays over the credits 'Once' is appropriately used throughout the movie and deserves to be a standard. The scene where a bound-up Peggie Castle crawls to a bound-up Quinn (to get her hands on his hidden pistol under pretense of a final kiss) would have made a great paperback cover for a Spillane Novel.