I am quite surprised what little attention this film garnered both when it was first released in 1957, and again by the film historians of today. In my humble opinion this film is a classic film noir that includes a very good script, great acting and a seasoned director in John Farrow who prior to this film, had a resume most other directors would envy.
Diana Dors plays Phyllis Hochen who was a sex pot in the 1950's and her hour glass figure was on full display as the cheating wife of Paul Hochen played by the great actor Rod Steiger whose resume is as long as my arms. Phyllis had planned to kill her older aged and rich husband Paul , but as the old saying goes "the best laid plans" and so it goes. Phyllis shoots the wrong guy by mistake but quickly pulls together an alternative scheme to fool her husband into taking the fall for the killing of his own best friend which she says was an accident.
As another old saying goes "love is blind" so the gullible husband Paul agrees to Phyllis's scheme in which he tells the sheriff that he shot his own best friend but little does Paul know that Phyllis's alternate plan has been set up to find her husband Paul guilty of first degree murder so he would at minimum go to prison for life, or even worse be hanged at the gallows.
Phyllis is cheating on Paul with a rugged good looking and younger bronco busting rodeo man named San Sanders played by Tom Tryon and her plan is to take Paul for all his money and squander it with her lover San. Living with Paul and his cheating wife are Paul's mother and Phyllis's young son. Paul also has a brother who is a devoted priest who symbolizes truth and celibacy, but the sexy Phyllis even has Paul's brother the priest fooled.
This is a very good film noir and I am convinced that all that was missing for this film to have gone onto great fame and accolades and maybe even a few Oscars, would be to have a top five director such as Alfred Hitchcock to have directed the film and without changing even one snippet of the films presentation, or the actors, the film would have received instant recognition and Oscar nominations. I really believe that.
It is well worth watching at least twice. I give it a solid 7 out of 10 IMDB rating.
