This masterful psychological thriller could not have been more persuasively directed. The screenplay - tight, tough, and cynical - was Robert Rossen's last assignment before he turned to directing his own scripts. Manny Farber, writing in the New Republic in 1946, began his review:

“The latest Hollywood film to show modern life as a jungle... a jolting, sour, engrossing work. It deals with four people who have lived cataclysmic, laughterless lives since they were babies. There is Martha (Barbara Stanwyck), who likes to steal, run away from home, murder and hammer her victims with clubs; her husband (Kirk Douglas), who is wracked by guilt because he is made an accomplice in Martha's evil doings, and is further tormented by her promiscuity with lifeguard types and lack of yen for him; a gambler (Van Heflin) and a girl just released from the pen (Lizabeth Scott), who act as if there were no evil that hadn't been imposed on them....”