This is one of those intriguing caper films that deals 90% with the build up to it and shows how capers fail simply because of the people they let become involved. There's the mastermind (Rory Calhoun), the big money man (James Gregory), his mistress (Mary Costello), not to mention an alcoholic pyromaniac and a psychotic young man that would as soon stab a cute dog to death let alone strangle a woman who rejected him. To get the caper off the ground, Calhoun and Costello posed as a married couple who move into the community where they intend to rob a bank of a million-dollar account but first established themselves as a respectable business owner and his new wife. becoming friendly with local law enforcement and others in the neighborhood gives Calhoun and Costello a friendly reputation, but things go awry as the drunken pyro gets out of control, the crazy young man turns homicidal, and Gregory discovers that Costello is two-timing him.
This moves at the perfect pace to set up each of the characters and each one of them has interesting tidbits about them revealed which makes for intriguing drama as well as a thrilling film nor. usually films that spend so much time on a setup and Abdul, but that is not the case here at all. There are enough important details implemented to provide great psychological drama, and the conflict between everybody involved in the caper build to where you know they'll most likely end up destroying each other. Corey Allen is one of the screen's most memorable crazies, gentle at one moment, then malevolently homicidal the next. Roxanne Arlen adds demention as a stereotypical dizzy blonde.
As for the three leads, Calhoun under plays his character's seedy nature, and Costello adds on a dimension of conscience as Gregory's gal pal. Gregory, so memorably sinister as the evil politician husband of Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate", is commanding in a role that could have been cliched and colorless. The screenplay, direction, editing and photography are all first-rate, and a wonderfully dramatic score sets everything emotionally in tone. There's no let up on this one. It will keep you enthralled throughout.
This moves at the perfect pace to set up each of the characters and each one of them has interesting tidbits about them revealed which makes for intriguing drama as well as a thrilling film nor. usually films that spend so much time on a setup and Abdul, but that is not the case here at all. There are enough important details implemented to provide great psychological drama, and the conflict between everybody involved in the caper build to where you know they'll most likely end up destroying each other. Corey Allen is one of the screen's most memorable crazies, gentle at one moment, then malevolently homicidal the next. Roxanne Arlen adds demention as a stereotypical dizzy blonde.
As for the three leads, Calhoun under plays his character's seedy nature, and Costello adds on a dimension of conscience as Gregory's gal pal. Gregory, so memorably sinister as the evil politician husband of Angela Lansbury in "The Manchurian Candidate", is commanding in a role that could have been cliched and colorless. The screenplay, direction, editing and photography are all first-rate, and a wonderfully dramatic score sets everything emotionally in tone. There's no let up on this one. It will keep you enthralled throughout.