.... What is a pretty lady doing here in the middle of nowhere all alone, interested in a married man with middling prospects?
Assistant DA Cleve Marshall (Wendell Corey) feels misunderstood and unappreciated. His wealthy father-in-law keeps interfering and showing up on important and rather private occasions such as wedding anniversaries and doing things that indicate that Cleve is held in only medium esteem by said father-in-law. So one night he is getting drunk at his office over this situation when previously mentioned pretty lady (Barbara Stanwyck as Thelma Jordan) comes into the office and asks for the other assistant DA, Miles Scott (Paul Kelly), but he isn't there, so Thelma tells her problems to Marshall.
Marshall acts disinterested in the reason she came in - break-ins at her wealthy aunt's secluded home. He flirts with her. He gets even more drunk and obnoxious, then kisses her. And yet the next day she returns and gets even friendlier with him. But Cleve never asks that question - Why unavailable me who did not exactly put my best foot forward last night? They start seeing each other when they can and then something happens that makes it awfully convenient for Thelma to know somebody in the DA's office - Her aunt is murdered and her safe robbed one night, and she looks like a suspect.
Stanwyck and Corey made one other film together - "The Furies", and I thought they had good screen chemistry, which I would have never believed until I watched this. Paul Kelly gives a good supporting performance as the other assistant DA. He goes hard on a murder suspect when doing the questioning, shooting out sarcastic remarks. That's rather ironic when you realize Kelly served two years in prison for manslaughter during the late 1920s, something that apparently had no impact on his acting career. Also note that the two kids playing Wendell Corey's children actually are Wendell Corey's children.
Last but not least, kudos to Victor Young for his wonderful score. He really made looking for a pencil in the dark seem suspenseful.
