Lawyer Edmond O'Brien (Regan) bursts into the office of business magnate Vincent Price (Colby) to serve him with a notice to pay his client for damages incurred in a road incident. Price is impressed by the determination and loyalty that O'Brien shows and hires him as a bodyguard. In his new role, O'Brien shoots and kills someone but begins to suspect that he has been manipulated into this killing. The story unfolds and Price ain't no good guy.The cast are all good in this offering and we watch as it dawns on O'Brien that things aren't what they seem. Credit to Police Lieutenant William Bendix (Damico) – he's on the right track and yet sort of wrong. The plot works out fine and it is easy to follow. We have two strong character actors in Price and Bendix. They own their characters just by speaking. That's their key identifier in any role that they play. The film is no great shakes but it's on the better side of OK.

I always like watching actors playing against their typecast character, and watching Vincent Price in his pre-Dr. Phibes days is great. William Bendix and Ella Raines add to the spell of this story about a self-confident lawyer (Edmond O'Brien) who gets snookered by a murderous, sophisticated investment bad guy (Price). One minor problem: Would a man as astute as Andrew Colby fall for that trick with Charles: I mean, no ambulance, no oxygen and no blood transfusions, yet he falls for the lieutenant's little scheme? But a great film nonetheless.

Little-known but rather splendid minor Noir with an intricate, ingenious plot (a small-time lawyer takes a job as bodyguard to the tycoon he has come up against in his latest case and is immediately drawn into unwittingly committing premeditated murder on his behalf, being a man who had taken a rap for him but has now come to collect!) – in hindsight, the title is very appropriate – and a top cast (genre stalwarts Edmond O'Brien, Ella Raines and William Bendix and, naturally as the smooth villain, Vincent Price). Universal, who produced this, churned out a number of excellent efforts during the form's heyday – notably several works by Jules Dassin and Robert Siodmak – which, this being made by second-tier talent, may explain how it got to be overlooked in the long run! O'Brien starred in his share of classics – notably the much-remade THE KILLERS (1946) and D.O.A. (1950) – and, in fact, when I went through some genre stuff early in the year, I acquired a couple of his lesser vehicles i.e. TWO OF A KIND (1951) and the self-directed SHIELD FOR MURDER (1954), but they ended up not making the list I eventually checked out (my collection of such items having basically gone out-of-hand in the last few years)! Lovely Raines, then, was the quintessential Noir heroine but, like Jane Greer and Audrey Totter (who were more the femme fatale type), she seemed to be out of her element in other genres, so that her career lasted only as long as the field held sway…but, of course, whenever this kind of film is discussed even now, their names inevitably crop up! Typically, Bendix is the cop smelling a rat: though he was a friend of O'Brien's late father, his integrity does not allow him to make it easy for the hero – especially when the latter becomes the prime suspect of a second murder, which was committed with his gun! Again, the climax delivers a real coup as Bendix announces that the latest victim (Price's live-in secretary, played by the sinister-looking John Abbott) is still alive…so that the real culprit is caught red-handed while attempting to finish the 'job', leading to the traditional shoot-out in a darkened room. In spite of the inherent gloom, the film does not entirely eschew humor throughout – especially when O'Brien confronts Price during a business conference with a bill amounting to peanuts, which is then resumed at the very end, as the hero is about to take what is owed to the former client (whom he had even tried to pass off as an associate of the first murdered party who could incriminate Price – I did say this was complexly-plotted!) before his current employer is taken away, only to be stopped in the act by Bendix who sarcastically asks him to exercise his official profession of lawyer and sue the man!

A delight for old movie fans—perfectly cast, engagingly scripted, and generally unpredictable. O'Brien's a brash, penny-ante lawyer who hooks up with slick, financial tycoon Price and his silken mistress- secretary Raines. Somebody's going to get taken for a ride, but who. O'Brien's so good at playing fast-talking operators, while Price calibrates (no hamming here) surprisingly well as a sly fox. And the long haired Raines looks absolutely ravishing as the cool and calculating Noel. Judged from this showcase, it's really too bad that O'Brien and Raines have slipped into obscurity. Also, catch John Abbott as Charles, the rather mysterious factotum. He always adds eccentric color to his parts. Those early scenes of O'Brien getting entangled are expertly scripted with sharply drawn characters. The banter is especially engaging without being cutesy or competitive with the story. I also like the way O'Brien's character (Regan) is kept purposely ambiguous, adding an element of unpredictability to the story's direction. Bendix's crafty cop is nicely conceived too. His scenes with O'Brien are little gems of sly one-upmanship. My only complaint is that tacky exterior set where O'Brien and Raines rendezvous. Doing the outdoors on a sound stage was always a challenge for the studios.Anyway, the movie comes as a pleasant, noirish surprise, again demonstrating the vitality of post-war Hollywood.