I've listened to SIBERIAN KHATRU, the utterly fantastic YES song for about forty years yet it still makes no sense. Likewise, this picture is so deliberately confusing that you've no idea what's going on either - but it's still absolutely great.
Like all good film noirs, this features those characters who only exist in that surreal dream world of shadows. The weary cop, the flash criminal tempted either to the dark side by the scheming femme fetale or to the light by the nightclub singer who's trying to be a good girl. We've got murders galore which everyone just accepts as perfectly normal, something that you forget about five minutes later, occurrences no more unusual than the constant rain. We've got a slimy gangster, a double-crossing rat in fact everything and more you could ever want in that unbelievable yet weirdly familiar colourful black and white world.
If you're used to seeing the 1930s Dick Powell, this 1940s Dick Powell takes a while to acclimatise to but he's so good at playing this role you can see why he became so successful in this second career. He's smart, sleek and convincingly dangerous - hard to believe he's the same person. His love interest is pretty Evelyn Keyes and she is also perfect in this role, it seems like she was born into this nether-world.
The story tries and succeeds to be even more confusing and convoluted than THE BIG SLEEP. Its script sounds almost like a loving parody of Raymond Chandler and every trope and cliché of the genre is there. It's a perfect example of a film noir - even though it makes as much sense as: 'Gold stainless nail, torn through the distance of man...'
Like all good film noirs, this features those characters who only exist in that surreal dream world of shadows. The weary cop, the flash criminal tempted either to the dark side by the scheming femme fetale or to the light by the nightclub singer who's trying to be a good girl. We've got murders galore which everyone just accepts as perfectly normal, something that you forget about five minutes later, occurrences no more unusual than the constant rain. We've got a slimy gangster, a double-crossing rat in fact everything and more you could ever want in that unbelievable yet weirdly familiar colourful black and white world.
If you're used to seeing the 1930s Dick Powell, this 1940s Dick Powell takes a while to acclimatise to but he's so good at playing this role you can see why he became so successful in this second career. He's smart, sleek and convincingly dangerous - hard to believe he's the same person. His love interest is pretty Evelyn Keyes and she is also perfect in this role, it seems like she was born into this nether-world.
The story tries and succeeds to be even more confusing and convoluted than THE BIG SLEEP. Its script sounds almost like a loving parody of Raymond Chandler and every trope and cliché of the genre is there. It's a perfect example of a film noir - even though it makes as much sense as: 'Gold stainless nail, torn through the distance of man...'