Hammer Studios was Yet to Find its Niche and Managed to Make B-Films of Different American Genres in Their Pre-Horror Boom. The Studio's Late Entries Into the Noir Cycle were Not Bad but Still a Day Late and a Dollar Short.
Even the American Born Genre of Film-Noir was Showing Signs of "Evolving" or "Devolving" into More Palatable Pictures in that More Optimistic and Eisenhower Friendly "Crime Dramas" and All but Abandoned the Cynicism and Dark Undertones of the Best of the Noris.
Here there are a Couple of Scenes that Remind of What those Dark Films Offered, Like a Nightmre Alley with a Killer on the Loose and a Claustrophobic Greenhouse Finale that Highlight.
Dane Clark does a Fine Job as a Fate Gone Wrong Businessman and Shows Some Range. The Supporting Cast Not So Much as Most of the Characters are Shallow and Purely Pedestrian.
Worth a Watch for Hammer Completest and B-Movie Crime Fans, but by 1954 Film-Noir was Turning into Something Different and This One was Caught on the Edge of the Transition and While Nothing Special, it is One More that Can Be Put on that List of Film-Noirs that have Many Entries that Simply Seem to Fit Arguably and Not Comfortably.
Even the American Born Genre of Film-Noir was Showing Signs of "Evolving" or "Devolving" into More Palatable Pictures in that More Optimistic and Eisenhower Friendly "Crime Dramas" and All but Abandoned the Cynicism and Dark Undertones of the Best of the Noris.
Here there are a Couple of Scenes that Remind of What those Dark Films Offered, Like a Nightmre Alley with a Killer on the Loose and a Claustrophobic Greenhouse Finale that Highlight.
Dane Clark does a Fine Job as a Fate Gone Wrong Businessman and Shows Some Range. The Supporting Cast Not So Much as Most of the Characters are Shallow and Purely Pedestrian.
Worth a Watch for Hammer Completest and B-Movie Crime Fans, but by 1954 Film-Noir was Turning into Something Different and This One was Caught on the Edge of the Transition and While Nothing Special, it is One More that Can Be Put on that List of Film-Noirs that have Many Entries that Simply Seem to Fit Arguably and Not Comfortably.