A film noir from 1951 coming from the lurid hands of Hugo Haas who co-wrote, directed as well as gave himself the plum lead. Haas works at a train depot living on site at a small cozy shack w/his only companions a co-worker, played by Allan Nixon, & a learned hobo, Howland Chamberlain. When Haas' dog passes he decides to go into town & get a new pup where a carnival is in full swing. Meanwhile a femme fatale on the make, played by Beverly Michaels, crosses paths w/Haas where she plies her feminine wiles which he is more than receptive to. When Michaels & her best bud are kicked out from their apartment (since they owe back rent), Michaels makes up her mind to marry Haas, which she does, hoping to ride the rails (sorry!) into an easy life. An opportunity arises however when Haas loses his hearing (something his doctor feels is psycho-somatic) so Michaels, who has been hooking up w/Nixon, concocts a plan to off Haas to collect on a promised pension which doesn't go as smoothly as they want when Haas' hearing comes back & he's on to them. Taking many pages from James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice Haas has wisely inverted the tale to focus on the patsy rather than the players who prey on him (seen in the original 1946 version as well as the remake from 1981) w/Haas putting out something that could've been more salacious, since his output was generally B movie drive-in fare made on the cheap, but ends up being more honorable then one is led to believe.
