John Garfield (Frank) drifts into a small town and gets work at a café/diner run by an unlikely husband and wife team, Cecil Kellaway (Nick) and Lana Turner (Cora). Garfield and Turner have an attraction for each other that reaches a dangerous level and we follow the consequences of their actions...
The cast are all good - my favourite is Hume Cronyn who plays "Arthur Keats", a very cunning lawyer, and he steals the show in every scene that he is in. Lana Turner is also a very cool customer and one of her best moments occurs after she has just been kissed by Garfield for the first time. Instead of the customary slap in the face that we are all expecting, she just re-applies her make-up and walks past him. How cool is she?
As for the story, you need to suspend belief on a few occasions. First of all, it is just completely impossible to believe the marriage between fat, old Kellaway and young, attractive Turner. Even less difficult to take in is the willingness on Kellaway's part to encourage the much younger, better-looking and better suited lover for Turner to spend as much time possible as he can with her. WHAT!!? This Kellaway character is INCREDIBLY stupid. Another corker of an idea is to have Garfield and Turner plan to kill Kellaway by throwing some marbles under him so that he will slip and kill himself. This is getting pretty stupid now, isn't it?
There are some memorable scenes but the ending is rather too convenient and the final scene has some rather forced dialogue to try and justify the film's title. Overall, it's an entertaining film that is a little long but deserves another look.
The cast are all good - my favourite is Hume Cronyn who plays "Arthur Keats", a very cunning lawyer, and he steals the show in every scene that he is in. Lana Turner is also a very cool customer and one of her best moments occurs after she has just been kissed by Garfield for the first time. Instead of the customary slap in the face that we are all expecting, she just re-applies her make-up and walks past him. How cool is she?
As for the story, you need to suspend belief on a few occasions. First of all, it is just completely impossible to believe the marriage between fat, old Kellaway and young, attractive Turner. Even less difficult to take in is the willingness on Kellaway's part to encourage the much younger, better-looking and better suited lover for Turner to spend as much time possible as he can with her. WHAT!!? This Kellaway character is INCREDIBLY stupid. Another corker of an idea is to have Garfield and Turner plan to kill Kellaway by throwing some marbles under him so that he will slip and kill himself. This is getting pretty stupid now, isn't it?
There are some memorable scenes but the ending is rather too convenient and the final scene has some rather forced dialogue to try and justify the film's title. Overall, it's an entertaining film that is a little long but deserves another look.