Lonely housewife, whose disc jockey husband works the graveyard shift, calls the police one night to report a peeping Tom and attracts the attention of one of the two policemen who come to investigate. Later that same night, he drops by again, and soon they discover they have a lot in common. Not terribly interesting crime-melodrama, with Van Heflin's cop going from wolf on the prowl to murderer in an unconvincingly short amount of time. The script, credited to Hugo Butler (fronting for blacklisted Dalton Trumbo) from an original treatment by Robert Thoeren and Hans Wilhelm, seems to take its cue from "The Postman Always Rings Twice", only Evelyn Keyes (whose acting is dry and ordinary, like a colorless Susan Hayward) is hardly in Lana Turner's league. Third-act in the Calico ghost town does provide for an unusual climax, but by then the story has gotten all balled up. ** from ****
Review of The Prowler
