The influence of Billy Wilder's classic Double Indemnity is rather obvious with the creation of The Man Who Cheated Himself. This is quite the B film with some surprising casting in the female lead.The Walter Neff part is played by Lee J. Cobb and he's a veteran homicide detective in San Francisco who happens to be seeing rich heiress on the side Jane Wyatt. Wyatt is getting rid of her husband by divorce, but one night with Cobb in the house she puts two bullets in him when he comes at her.The scandal would have been terrific and Cobb's career might have come to an end, but it would have been better than what follows. Cobb agrees to help in a cover-up, but it falls apart.The Barton Keyes in this film isn't an experienced investigator, it's John Dall probably playing the most straightforward part in his career. He gets a bad feeling when certain things don't add up and Dall who is looking to make his bones as a homicide cop in the family tradition gets sadly disillusioned.The real revelation in this film is Wyatt. Forgetting she was the All American mother in Father Knows Best, Wyatt is one mean vixen in a part that Barbara Stanwyck or Bette Davis usually does. It was so offbeat casting for Jane Wyatt. I don't recall seeing her in another part like this.What she does in that little coda as the film ends. Stanwyck couldn't have done it better.

***SPOLIERS*** Just wanting to cover up the murder, or homicide, of his lover's Lois Frazer, Jane Wyatt, estranged husband Howard, Harlan Warde, SFPD highly decorated and respected Let. Det. Cullen, really screwed thing up for himself thinking that he's in control of the situation. It just happened that his kid brother Andy, John Dall, was put on the murder case, his first, that if solved would implicate Lt.Cullen in Mr. Frazer's death! Doing all all he could, even moving the body, to make it look like Mr. Frazer was killed in a mugging at the San Francisco Airport Brother Andy uncovered a number of clues that pointed straight to big brother Ed in both the murder and cover up.Meanwhile the murder weapon was recovered and showed that it was involved in the murder of a liquor store owner as well which brother Cullen & Mrs. Lois Frazer had nothing to do with. As it turned out after Ed had gotten rid of the gun that killed Mr. Frazer, by throwing it off the Golden Gate Bridge, this hood Nito Capa, Alan Wells, recovered and used in the murder robbery! Now it seem that both Let. Ed Cullen and Lois were home free to get back to their lives without worrying about their involvement, in Lois killing and Cullen covering up, in Mr. Frazer's murder: Or so they thought!***SPOILERS*** With the coast seeming clear for Cullen and his lover Lois brother Andy uncovered a clue that not only exonerated Capa of Frazer's murder but reinforced his suspicion of his big brother as well as Mrs. Frazer's involvement in Mr. Frazer's demise! Knowing that the jig is up and about to be arrested the two lovebirds, Cullen & Mrs. Frazer, made a run for it and ended up hiding at Fort Point at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. And it's there that the two were soon caught by the police in that's where Andy knew, back when Ed and himself were young boys, was Let. Cullen's favorite hiding place! To add insult to injury at their trial Ed's lover Lois completely ignored him and made a play for her high price lawyer or shyster who by now, in trying to get her off, was far more important to her then Ed was. And poor Ed who just wanted to do, in his love sick mind, the right thing may now well end up spending the rest of his life behind bars for doing it!

I agree that Jane Wyatt is horribly miscast here, particularly at the end, where she is revealed as a cold-hearted vixen playing the men for her advantage. Ole Jane just can't carry a part like that. She's made to play the good wifey, as she did so well on "Father Knows Best." Her natural aura of sweetness actually spoiled some of the plot effects. A tougher woman might have led us to believe that she really did intend to kill her husband, that it was not an accident, and might have hinted that she had some ulterior motive in forming a liaison with a homicide policeman. As it was, when she asked the cop if he wanted to marry her, it didn't make sense. Why would a rich lady like her want to become the wife of a policeman? And, by the way, how did they ever get involved in the first place? That might be more a hole in the writing than in her acting - it's hard to imagine any reason for such a rich, elegant society lady hitching up with a run-of-the-mill cop, especially while she's still married to another man - but a more slinky actress (Veronica Lake leaps to mind) could have bridged the gap in the plot with a few well chosen eyebrows raised, fleeting smiles, sidelong glances, and suchlike.The interplay between the cop trying to hide the crime and his brother trying to uncover it is the best part of the movie. I especially liked the moment when the brother is staking out the woman's house and sees his brother come out the front door. It struck me that a little more effort should have gone into developing and prolonging the awkwardness of that moment.The scenes in the derelict building are visually interesting, and excellent use is made of the sound of the wind and of footsteps echoing down the empty corridors. A first-rate ending.By the way, what's with all those Nash Ramblers (or some kind of car made by American Motor - I even saw a Studebaker) everyone is driving? Were they as funny-looking to people in 1950 as they are to us today?

This is another of the many B minus movies tagged as film noir in the hope of generating some interest in something that is devoid of it. All aspects of the film - script, acting, direction - are mediocre. The acting by the three leads is wooden. I guess John Dall was expected to go places in the movie business but then someone realised he had little talent and therefore ended up doing TV work. Lee J Cobb who is usually terrific cannot rise above the poor script and poor direction. Jane Wyatt is supposed to be a femme fatale but comes nowhere near convincing the viewers. The movie does have two of the strangest looking cars that I have ever seen, the one in which John Dall goes after Lee J Cobb is particularly strange. The DVD transfer is typical Alpha.