Double Jeopardy

Robert Armstrong is a drunk ex-con. He's getting $500 every month from real estate developer John Litel. Armstrong is married to floozy Gale Robbins, who's carrying on with Jack Kelly. Kelly and Miss Robbins want to run to Mexico, so she persuades Armstrong to get ten grand from his mysterious benefactor; the lovers will take the money and run. However, when Litel meets with Armstrong, he says there will be no more money and leaves. Kelly, who's been watching, comes up to Armstrong and tries to take the money he thinks he has, then kills him. Soon enough, the police trace Litel's connection to the dead man and arrest him. Now it's up to Litel's attorney, Rod Cameron, to try to prove him innocent.

It's certainly sleazy enough and complicated enough for a film noir, even though R.G. Springsteen directs it more for speed than atmosphere. The fine cast - which also includes Allison Hayes as Litel's daughter/Cameron's girlfriend and Minerva Urecal as a Marjorie-Main-style landlady, give solid performances. Armstrong is quite convincing as a drunk, Litel as a plutocrat. While CMeron looks a bit too much like a muscular half-back, and the resolution seems a little abrupt, this it a solid little movie.