The film starts with a call for an ambulance. A woman at a large estate has almost been asphyxiated by the gas heater in her room. The key has been removed from the radiator, so it seems deliberate. Did somebody try to kill her or did she try to kill herself or was it just some kind of odd freak accident?
While the commotion is going on upstairs, ambulance driver Frank Jessup (Robert Mitchum) wanders downstairs and finds the stepdaughter ( her dad is married to the wealthy woman), Diane (Jean Simmons) playing the piano. And that's where the attraction begins on the part of Frank. It's where the obsession begins on the part of Diane. It's where Diane mutters her first double entendre. She asks how her stepmother is, and says "It's so hard, just waiting...". Waiting for her to live, or for her to die?
The film is ultimately a wicked study in obsession - the kind of obsession that has no boundaries - the kind of obsession between a man and a woman - the kind of obsession that is so self-serving. And, interestingly, it is largely one-sided - since Frank may enjoy the delights of Diane, but also knows deep down that she should be put back on the shelf. Diane's obsession is so real that you do basically know that Mitchum's Frank Jessup doesn't really stand a chance.
But Frank wasn't just wandering through life alone when Diane met him. The other woman in Frank's life, played by Mona Freeman, is blonde and desirable. She may be an excellent cook and not ask questions, as Frank says, but there is some stark language for the production code era. He mentions she sleeps in pajamas. He mentions how much she weighs - "stripped". The implication is that Frank may be the free agent that he claims to be, but he has been sleeping with the lady. But she's a lady with a level head, and she is not just going to wait around for Frank to come to his senses - or not. Instead she explores another more dependable romantic possibility.
Let me just say Jean Simmons was a revelation here. She's a good actress but she has always come across as a virginal school marm type in all of the roles I saw her in until this one. I would have never believed she could have played opposite Mitchum's cool, relaxed persona and have made it work, but she did.
This film is dark to the extreme and is as fresh, as vital, and as pertinent as though it were made just yesterday.
