Remember in "Caged" when Eleanor Parker gets probation but is obviously going to be heading back to prison? That "after prison" story is pretty much what befalls parolee Patricia Knight in this engrossing film noir about a paroled murderess who falls in love with her parole officer (Cornel Wilde) and unintentionally leads him down the path towards his possible own doom. At first, it is business only, but as nature takes its course, sparks fly and Wilde falls under her spell. It is obvious that she longs to reform, but circumstances and the shady characters from her past cause situations to explode beyond her control, and leads to violence which sends Knight and Wilde on the run into hiding.
There's a slight bit of family drama concerning Wilde's blind mother (Esther Minicotti, best remembered as the manipulative mother in "Marty") who is totally sympathetic here. The glamorous Knight has an uncanny resemblance to such film noir vets as Lauren Bacall, Veronica Lake, Lizabeth Scott, and in particularly the more obscure K.T. Stevens. See the same year's "Port of New York" to see what I mean in referring to Ms. Stevens. Ironically, even though I'd never heard of Ms. Knight, I found her to be quite good. The last reel was pretty much re-done by Warner Brothers two years later for a film noir called "Tomorrow is Another Day". This is probably the only non-soap opera of director Douglas Sirk's career, and one of his few away from Universal. If you can get past the implausibility of parole officer Wilde risking his career (which includes political ambitions) for a murderess like Knight, then you will actually find yourself enjoying this movie as much as I did.
There's a slight bit of family drama concerning Wilde's blind mother (Esther Minicotti, best remembered as the manipulative mother in "Marty") who is totally sympathetic here. The glamorous Knight has an uncanny resemblance to such film noir vets as Lauren Bacall, Veronica Lake, Lizabeth Scott, and in particularly the more obscure K.T. Stevens. See the same year's "Port of New York" to see what I mean in referring to Ms. Stevens. Ironically, even though I'd never heard of Ms. Knight, I found her to be quite good. The last reel was pretty much re-done by Warner Brothers two years later for a film noir called "Tomorrow is Another Day". This is probably the only non-soap opera of director Douglas Sirk's career, and one of his few away from Universal. If you can get past the implausibility of parole officer Wilde risking his career (which includes political ambitions) for a murderess like Knight, then you will actually find yourself enjoying this movie as much as I did.