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Jul 17, 2016Nursebob rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
I am usually the first one to forgive the dramatic excesses inherent in any film noir production, after all it’s those very excesses which make the genre so much fun to watch in the first place. But director Edmund Goulding’s preachy tale is so predictable with it’s tawdry “just desserts” twists and pious condemnations that at times it seems to be mocking itself. Despite that sculpted chest Tyrone Power doesn’t exhibit much of a screen presence and fellow actresses Joan Blondell, Colleen Gray, and Helen Walker either hiss or weep according to the scene. Still fun to watch, but its hokey script calls to mind a cheap graphic novel. Indeed, Jules Furthman’s screenplay was taken from William Gresham’s dime store paperback.