A complicated noir-melodrama about a morose, murderous kind of guy (Lawrence Tierney) who marries an insecure woman for her money but can't keep his thoughts off her sister (Claire Trevor). The feeling is mutual; "the maniacal Tierney seems to bring out the worst in others" as Barry Gifford writes. "Robert Wise, a veteran of the RKO/Val Lewton stable...also worked with Orson Welles and knew his way around low-budget horror and suspense productions. Tierney's menacing presence is as volatile here as in (The Devil Thumbs a Ride), but the circumstances are slicker-no more believable, really, but more sophisticated. Again, the big lug is a squinty-eyed killer, a rock-hard devil with women, the big brute fantasy come alive in all of his horrifying glory...What (works) is the tension, the individual scenes of menace..."