(1) Although the plot is nothing new, this movie was still a lot better than I anticipated.

(2) Shot entirely (or very nearly so) on location, and featuring some local politicians and celebrities in bit roles, this is a very good example of Fifties regional / exposé noir. The exterior visuals have a great deal of freshness because of the flavorful shooting locations.

(3) As I have mentioned before, I love it when attractive but ordinary-seeming actors get their shots at leading roles - Frank Lovejoy, Edward Binns, Wendell Corey, Adam Williams, William Sylvester, Arthur Franz here. They are extremely relatable.

(4) This is maybe the loosest, peppiest role that Franz ever got to play on screen. He just seems like a thoroughly nice, fun guy. Note that in the early picnic sequence, we see him dancing with the stunning Helene Stanton without any establishing meet-cute scene; we infer immediately that he is a confident fellow who will never have any trouble attracting women.

(5) Although I’ve seen comments to the effect that Franz is not a convincing amateur boxer, I would differ. He is plenty scrappy and has a visibly nice build.

(6) I have also seen comments that Helene Stanton and Beverly Garland (excellent as always) look too much alike to begin with and are made to look even more alike with their blonde hairdos. OK, I’m going to get a little obvious here: This may be taken as completely intentional. It’s not as if director William Castle and the production team could have been unaware of it. The two women are two sides of a coin, and since both have sparks with Franz, you do have to look twice at the start of a scene to see which one it is! They only appear together once. Franz gets to wind up with both the “bad girl” and the “good girl” because they are essentially one.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r4DxGTFa1Es&pp=ygUWTmV3IG9ybGVhbnMgdW5jZW5zb3JlZA%3D%3D