A couple of people who make their living just over the line between citizen and
criminal fall in love. An unlikely romance between Lucille Ball and John Hodiak
when Hodiak queers an art con game she's running on mark Lloyd Corrigan.
Despite that bad beginning these two fall in love as Hodiak is being taken back from Mexico to the USA by cop Lloyd Nolan. Hodiak has safely stashed some bonds he stole that when they are cashed will net him a nice lifetime income so he's copping a plea to a lesser charge and then will be fleeing presumably to a non-extradition jurisdiction to enjoy life after his sentence is up.
The fly in this ointment is Elisha Cook, Jr. playing a more adult and tougher version of Wilmer the gunsill from The Maltese Falcon. He wants in or he wants all the proceeds and he doesn't care how he gets it.
Given the talent involved this should have been a better film. But I think too much time was devoted to Hodiak and Ball who really have no chemistry at all. That con game with Corrigan had some of the best moments in the movie and the climax shootout among the Mardi Gras revelers in costume was done well also.
But it sags in the middle like a swayback horse.
Despite that bad beginning these two fall in love as Hodiak is being taken back from Mexico to the USA by cop Lloyd Nolan. Hodiak has safely stashed some bonds he stole that when they are cashed will net him a nice lifetime income so he's copping a plea to a lesser charge and then will be fleeing presumably to a non-extradition jurisdiction to enjoy life after his sentence is up.
The fly in this ointment is Elisha Cook, Jr. playing a more adult and tougher version of Wilmer the gunsill from The Maltese Falcon. He wants in or he wants all the proceeds and he doesn't care how he gets it.
Given the talent involved this should have been a better film. But I think too much time was devoted to Hodiak and Ball who really have no chemistry at all. That con game with Corrigan had some of the best moments in the movie and the climax shootout among the Mardi Gras revelers in costume was done well also.
But it sags in the middle like a swayback horse.