Quite similar in story and mood to Noir Alley's previous offering, "Black Angel". Both are noirs based on Cornell Woolrich tales of stand up gals (to employ a noir ism) who partner with dodgy guys (to employ a Brit ism) to try to free their wrongly accused hubbys, currently on death row, before they are executed. If I preferred "Angel" to this film maybe it is because I felt there was a fuller and more convincing dark, Woolrichian, urban underworld portrayed. "Shoes", by contrast, beyond Regis Toomey's excellent study in lonely creepiness and a few odd bits, like the death row inmates who like Chopin (eerily similar to Peter Lorre's gangster who likes Shostakovich in "Angel"), is a bit on the blandly generic side, especially when the plodding police procedural takes center stage or when the husband and wife dance team engages in lovey dovey banter, which is often. Or maybe it's just that I prefer June Vincent to Elyse Knox. Give it a B minus.
PS...Reason # 301 why Eddie Muller is my favorite TCM host...the guy's a cat aficionado.
PS...Reason # 301 why Eddie Muller is my favorite TCM host...the guy's a cat aficionado.