Fritz Lang's film noir is set in Monterey against a realistic backdrop of the fishing industry and Cannery Row. Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman who returns to her Monterey home town after becoming disillusioned with the city. She marries a regular guy (Paul Douglas), but it is not long before she becomes drawn to the caustic Robert Ryan, who gives one of his best performances as the anguished cynic (“Help me, Mae, I'm dying of loneliness!”). In one of her first important dramatic roles, as Stanwyck's future sister-in-law, Marilyn Monroe takes lessons from the lady on how to be free, and how to come home “when you run out of places.” Adapted from a play by Clifford Odets, the film juxtaposes claustrophobic interiors with location shooting uncharacteristic for Lang. A lengthy, documentary-like introduction to the film's Monterey setting also very deftly introduces us to its alienated, middle-class characters.