Rating: NR
Genre:
Thriller
Release Date: 06/06/2006
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD2/DD1
Run Time: 82 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: 20th Century Fox
Well-known New York sports promoter
Frankie Christopher (
Victor Mature) is the prime suspect in the murder of
Vicky Lynn (
Carole Landis), a successful model and would-be actress. Questioned relentlessly by the police, and particularly by hulking detective squad commander
Ed Cornell (
Laird Cregar), he maintains his innocence. Meanwhile,
Vicky's sister
Jill (
Betty Grable) is also being questioned. Their answers, given in adjoining interrogation rooms, become the basis for brief, neatly constructed interlocking flashbacks at the opening of the movie that explain a ton of plot in very little time. Both are released after admitting nothing, and the police begin working on other suspects, including journalist
Larry Evans (
Allyn Joslyn), aging actor
Robin Ray (
Alan Mowbray), and hotel clerk
William Harrison (
Elisha Cook Jr.)
Jill had little use for
Frankie, the man who had been promoting her sister's career, but the two are drawn together in the course of trying to sort out their lives and the murder of her sister, and her realization that
Frankie is capable of truly loving a woman, and not just exploiting her. Meanwhile,
Cornell makes it his business to pressure and torment
Frankie, illegally entering his apartment and promising him an arrest and a death sentence. Eventually, the noose seems to tighten around
Frankie as the circumstantial evidence piles up, until
Frankie, trying to clear himself, uncovers a clue leading back to the real killer -- who was known to
Cornell all along. Confronting the detective in his apartment,
Frankie discovers a veritable shrine to
Vicky -- copies of her magazine covers and photos filling the walls of his apartment -- and learns that the man had his own dark reasons for wanting to kill him. His psychosis finally catching up with him, his career and reputation in ruins,
Cornell reveals the truth to
Frankie as he proceeds to take his own life.
~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide