Nice observations, Mark--I gave it a re-watch and everything you noted is on-point. One of the valuable aspects of the ongoing "B"-noir substratum is the opportunities it gave to the type of actors you reference--both on the way up the ladder and on the way back down. It's in this region of noir where that type of actor would get the chance to stretch out a bit more and play a lead role that might also include some character-actor undercurrent...if he was lucky enough to get a script that provided such an opportunity.

Helene Stanton was pretty much a younger clone of Marie Windsor, but she had a softer side that was occasionally allowed to surface, as it does here. She and Beverly Garland worked together in another film from the same year--SUDDEN DANGER, one of Bill Elliot's B-policier series--where the difference between the two actress is much more pronounced. Garland stayed in the business for the duration, while Stanton gave it all up to get married, but as good as Garland was over the arc of her career, I'm not sure that she ever made the type of impression that Stanton achieved as the "collateral damage" showgirl in THE BIG COMBO, with some of the most stinging lines directed at a bewitched/bothered/bewildered cop (Cornell Wilde) as you'll find anywhere in noir. Garland had more range, which she often was unable to keep from going over the top; Stanton was never going to transcend "eye candy" type roles, but she had something within her that allowed her to get beyond the clichés that often afflict such characterizations.