Losey's first British film is also the first in what would be a brilliant five-film collaboration with actor Dirk Bogarde. Bogarde plays Frank Clemmons, a petty hood who pulls an abortive stick-up on cool-as-a-cucumber psychiatrist Clive Esmond (played with a chill factor by Alexander Knox), only to be taken into the home of the good doctor, who attempts to “cure” him rather than send him to prison. But Frank's presence interrupts the salad days between husband and wife Glenda (a marvelous Alexis Smith), and the tangle of professional and personal relationships among the three takes center stage. Though the film's Spellbound-esque psychology might be dismissed, the sharp dialogue by blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and Harold Buchman resonates, as Frank and Glenda dance perilously around each other and Dr. Esmond battles a nosy police inspector (Hugh Griffith) for control of the wayward thug. Fears of diminished distribution in the United States resulted in Losey receiving no screen credit; his name was replaced by that of producer Victor Hanbury.