Playing the lead is unfamiliar territory for Lee J Cobb but a welcome change of pace in a role usually reserved for a handsomer marquee player. Love is in the air for the usually abrasive haranguer but in this case it leads to his undoing.
Wealthy Lois Frazier (Jane Wyatt) is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce with her husband Howard. When she finds a receipt for a 38 she immediately suspects her hubby might want her dead as well. Fortunately for her she's involved with police lieutenant Cullen (Lee J Cobb) who can smooth things over. When the husband returns she drills him and Cullen clumsily tries to cover the murder up. His green detective brother (John Dall) psyched in his first week on the job begins to piece things together while Cullen does his best to distract him from the trail. But he may have taught his brother too well.
Cobb acquits himself well in a part that calls for softness and not the generic intolerance and rage he specializes in. He has the rumpled veteran dick down pat but in his clinches with Frazier a realistic every-man blinded by beauty. As the supercilious Frazier, Wyman overreaches but for those of us brought up in the 50s it can be quite jarring to watch Father Know's Best wife making out with Johnny Friendly.
A B-picture Double Indemnity it lacks the classic's dialogue but director Felix Feist does have top shelf cinematographer Roger Harlan ( Gun Crazy) along for the ride who delivers at least two scenes ( an interrogation and an abandoned factory scene near the Golden Gate) that any noir or crime drama would be proud to inject into their mise en scene.
Wealthy Lois Frazier (Jane Wyatt) is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce with her husband Howard. When she finds a receipt for a 38 she immediately suspects her hubby might want her dead as well. Fortunately for her she's involved with police lieutenant Cullen (Lee J Cobb) who can smooth things over. When the husband returns she drills him and Cullen clumsily tries to cover the murder up. His green detective brother (John Dall) psyched in his first week on the job begins to piece things together while Cullen does his best to distract him from the trail. But he may have taught his brother too well.
Cobb acquits himself well in a part that calls for softness and not the generic intolerance and rage he specializes in. He has the rumpled veteran dick down pat but in his clinches with Frazier a realistic every-man blinded by beauty. As the supercilious Frazier, Wyman overreaches but for those of us brought up in the 50s it can be quite jarring to watch Father Know's Best wife making out with Johnny Friendly.
A B-picture Double Indemnity it lacks the classic's dialogue but director Felix Feist does have top shelf cinematographer Roger Harlan ( Gun Crazy) along for the ride who delivers at least two scenes ( an interrogation and an abandoned factory scene near the Golden Gate) that any noir or crime drama would be proud to inject into their mise en scene.