A first-rate, smoking noir. Who requested this and, by extension, my respect?

Ah, I see it was you, trixster. I liked you anyway.

I should hope I wouldn't need to request your respect.

It's the quintessential noir. All the pieces are here, and they operate at such a high degree of artistry and entertainment that the film becomes simultaneously masterful and exciting - a true marriage of art and pulp. You can dissect it while enjoying it. It's that kind of brilliant masterpiece.

On top of being superbly structured and impossibly convoluted, it combines all of the dominating themes of noir at the time - post-war disillusionment, male paranoia of female power, existentialist worldview - into one tidy, neat package. It's not as subversive or perverse as some of the later noirs - Touch of Evil, I'm looking at you - and yet it feels quite advanced in its transgressions from The Maltese Falcon or even Double Indemnity. It's situated right in the middle of the prime noir cycle, and it represents the culmination of the genre.

Robert Mitchum is terrific as the cynical, passive anti-hero, as is Kirk Douglas as the charming sleazebag, while Jane Greer personifies femme fatale as it has never been personified before - save maybe by Stanwyck. The dialogue is simply smoldering; the cinematography is a terrific combination of typical noir elements and conventional Hollywood ones, representing the fundamental dichotomy between the noir world and the normal one. There is literally no fault to be found in the film. It's even got a terrifically fatalist ending!

Instantly vaults into position on my favourites list. What a film.

I don't like it. I think it bored me, like most noirs.

for as good of a movie as it is, the deaf/dumb kid is the only part I remembered. maybe it was all the ambien.

go fuck yourself, argos. i saw this for the fourth or fifth time and it's getting better with every viewing. i think my new favorite moment is when a telephone rings in meta carson's house after mitchum avoided getting framed by her, and he stands right next to it and just laughs for a moment before hiding in a dark corner. he is the ultimate noir badass in this movie. i'm sure i'll find a new favorite moment during my next viewing, tourneur is truly a master of detailed filmmaking.