... actually she (Rosemary Decamp as Dr. Jane Silla) is a psychiatrist.
The film opens on a man (Zachary Scott as Ronnie Mason) looking at the inscription on a woman's wedding ring. The woman is lying in bed, dead although she appears to be sleeping. Ronnie grabs most but not all of a large wad of cash from her purse and disappears down the fire escape as the landlady is banging loudly on the door. She has just found out the two are not married. The woman left her husband for this man two months ago, but she has died by poison and left a suicide note. The woman's husband vehemently disagrees that his wife would kill herself and demands justice. So all of this just establishes that Ronnie is a bad guy to the audience. We know who the villain is from the outset.
Ronnie really is a puzzle. He apparently is a writer of short stories and a semi successful one. The woman he killed did not have so much money that she would be worth jail or the chair. And Hilda, a workaholic stenographer and daughter of his next landlady, is not wealthy either. What is the point of him winning her over? But that he does. And then Hilda's younger sister returns from a convalescent home. And Ronnie turns on a dime and goes after her, mainly because he realizes she will come into some money when she marries. Because he and Hilda were so quiet about their romance at his insistence, he is able to lie and say that she pursued him and that there was never anything between them.
So what is up with this guy?That is where De Camp's Dr. Silla comes in. She explains - or tries to explain - Ronnie's psyche to Hilda who is now genuinely concerned for her sister's welfare if she marries Ronnie. Hilda talks about killing him. Dr. Silla talks "production code speak" as to how that would damage Hilda as much as Ronnie. I'm not so sure of that doc.
Throw in a charmingly awkward chemist with a crush on Hilda played by Bruce Bennett, a guy waiting for his draft notice, his voice to change, and for Hilda's younger sister to notice he is alive played by Richard Erdman,, plus that pesky husband of the first victim in this film, and you have to wonder - how exactly is Ronnie going to get his? Will he get his? Watch and find out.
I like this noir because it tries to introduce a psychological angle into Ronnie's behavior. Plus for a film made in 1945 it does not try and pretend that the war is just gone. It is part of the plot. And I like how Rosemary DeCamp turns what is basically a plot device into a full fledged character with a charming continental accent. And poor Zachary Scott. He looked like a villain and he played them so suavely that he was forever typecast.
There were really no big names in this one, but it is a worthwhile entry in the noir genre demonstrating how one normal looking sociopath can upturn the lives of so many average people, not by appealing to their greed as is true in so many noirs, but by appealing to their desire to be loved and understood.
