The 1950's were not Kind to Film-Noir or Joan Crawford. Here is a Prime Example of Both being Betrayed by a Changing Culture and in Joan's Case, just Old Father Time. Even at this Late Date Crawford's Films Insisted on Casting the Aging Actress as a Man Eater and it seemed Anyone on Screen Fell Under Her Spell. There were Lines of Dialog in Scene after Scene Exclaiming Her Beauty. With Each Passing Year from about 1945 the Credulity Strained.For Film-Noir there is Now Included for Your Domestication, Children, and Marriages, Professional People like Doctors and such all making its way into the Darkness of Noir with the Light of Optimism and Suburbia. This is a Not-Bad Movie that has a Few Outstanding Scenes but is Smothered by some Heavy Romanticism and Doctorly Do-Gooding. But the Private Eye is Sleazy and the Gang Members are Dumb Brutes, and oh yea this is the Fifties so the F.B.I. is Around for some Flag Waving and Wiretapping. There is Enough here to keep this Above Doldrums and the Good Parts, like the Climactic Shootout in an Operating Room, make this Worth a Watch.

***SPOILERS***Odd and bizarre combination crime love story with the always abused, as of late, Joan Crawford as gun moll Beth Austin who somehow gets involved romantically with handsome and single, he wife walked out on him, Dr. Ben Halleck, Dennis Morgan, who against his better judgment saved Beth's eyesight after she was on the verge of going blind. It's Beth's jealous and love crazed boyfriend Matt Jackson, David Brian, who feels that she's cheating on him behind his back and plans to ice her lover Dr. Halleck and her as well. The thing is that Beth is actually in love with Matt despite his unbalanced mental condition but for her to explain that to him is like squeezing water out of sand in the Sahara Desert.While this is going on with Beth convalescing after her operation in the hospital Matt and his kid brother Will, Philip Cary, are involved in a number of crimes one the murder of a state trooper who stopped their trailer for a minor litter, throwing a whiskey bottle out on the highway, infraction. Already wanted in the armed robbery of a legal gambling casino Matt has a murder rap hanging over his head but the love obsessed guy is only interested in getting Dr. Hallack whom he feels stole his girl Beth away from him.The climatic and sensational ending to this really strange film has the by now completely out of his skull Matt Jackson burst into the operating room when the targeted for death Dr. Hallack in preforming a delicate operation. With everyone having surgical masks on Matt demands the operating crew unmask themselves so he can see and blast Dr. Halleck right in the middle of the operation he's preforming! That's if Beth and the police don't get there in time to stop him.What's there to say about a movie like this but that it will leave you speechless in trying to figure out what and why an Academy Award winning actress like Joan Crawford would have any part much less be the star of this overcooked turkey. Still the film is one of Mrs. Crawford's most memorable in that she in fact pulled it off despite the lousy script she was handed that a far less accomplished actress would find difficult if not impossible to breath life into. As for Mrs. Crawford's co-star David Brian he was so off the wall and crazy, love crazy, you wondered what she saw in him in the first place that had her meekly put up with his crazed and jealous antics to the point that almost ended up getting her killed by him, the one who supposedly loved her, of all people!

This was Joan Crawford's final film under her Warner Brothers contract. She hated the film, but accepted it anyway to complete her agreement with the studio. It is not as bad as everyone thinks it is, but it is odd to see Joan as a lady gangster, going blind, and finding true love with the surgeon (Dennis Morgan) who restores her sight.

This movie is really a star vehicle for Joan Crawford. Here she plays a "gang leader". Her henchmen are typically stupid and violent. Oddly she falls in love with a very decent doctor and the way this plays out is well done.One especially impressive scene has her visit a woman's prison (in the company of her Doctor friend). Really nice acting job as she portrays her fear of the place (she has been in prison before one guesses) while trying to appear unconcerned. I think this movie is quite a bit better than most people give it credit for.