Someone once said that the cure for boredom is curiosity, but that there is no cure for curiosity.
Dick Powell as the bored insurance adjuster or whatever he is, is bored with his typical family and his typical work. Every day is the same, although his wife, the elegant Jane Wyatt, is conceivably livening up his nights.
Raymond Burr is a private investigator working for the Global Inadequate Circumcisional Jupiter Atlas Mutual Insurance Company and Perloo Society, and he twigs Powell to the fact that some stolen goods can be recovered from an innocent recipient, Elizabeth Scott. "Some dish," drools the creepy Burr who blinks only once in the entire movie. (I counted.) Powell is as rude and dismissive of Burr as he is with his family and everyone else -- until he tumbles into the arms of Scott. The guy is wholly smitten. And who wouldn't be? Scott isn't a knockout or a very good actress but she flings herself around Powell, like an amoeba's pseudopod around a food particle, and practically consumes him. Observing all this from a distance is the macabre figure of the jealous Burr, who happens to be the most clever person in the entire movie.
Well, it's a bad situation all right and Powell, who seems to have three pounds of feathers for a brain, tries to straighten it out but just makes it worse. But he's not alone in his stupidity. The ex boyfriend who gave Scott the stolen goods is in the slams, and Burr visits him and plants all sorts of suspicions about Scott's relationship with Powell.
The boyfriend is Byron Barr and he can't act, but he still manages to project the character of the most stupid person in the movie. Barr is about to be released and Scott visits him, hoping they can start off again, clean. But Barr is fuming with jealousy. Scott has shown herself to be a sensitive and perceptive person so far, but when she presses her case with the outraged and glandular Barr she joins the ranks of the unspeakably dumb.
The plot is from a mold similar to that of "Double Indemnity" but less gripping. The performances are professional enough, except for Byron Barr, and in fact Raymond Burr is pretty convincing.
Dick Powell as the bored insurance adjuster or whatever he is, is bored with his typical family and his typical work. Every day is the same, although his wife, the elegant Jane Wyatt, is conceivably livening up his nights.
Raymond Burr is a private investigator working for the Global Inadequate Circumcisional Jupiter Atlas Mutual Insurance Company and Perloo Society, and he twigs Powell to the fact that some stolen goods can be recovered from an innocent recipient, Elizabeth Scott. "Some dish," drools the creepy Burr who blinks only once in the entire movie. (I counted.) Powell is as rude and dismissive of Burr as he is with his family and everyone else -- until he tumbles into the arms of Scott. The guy is wholly smitten. And who wouldn't be? Scott isn't a knockout or a very good actress but she flings herself around Powell, like an amoeba's pseudopod around a food particle, and practically consumes him. Observing all this from a distance is the macabre figure of the jealous Burr, who happens to be the most clever person in the entire movie.
Well, it's a bad situation all right and Powell, who seems to have three pounds of feathers for a brain, tries to straighten it out but just makes it worse. But he's not alone in his stupidity. The ex boyfriend who gave Scott the stolen goods is in the slams, and Burr visits him and plants all sorts of suspicions about Scott's relationship with Powell.
The boyfriend is Byron Barr and he can't act, but he still manages to project the character of the most stupid person in the movie. Barr is about to be released and Scott visits him, hoping they can start off again, clean. But Barr is fuming with jealousy. Scott has shown herself to be a sensitive and perceptive person so far, but when she presses her case with the outraged and glandular Barr she joins the ranks of the unspeakably dumb.
The plot is from a mold similar to that of "Double Indemnity" but less gripping. The performances are professional enough, except for Byron Barr, and in fact Raymond Burr is pretty convincing.