It is definitely a laborious, Byzantine plot, by far the most twisted in the David Goodis oeuvre. Adding in the first-person camera definitely adds to the "kookiness," though the artificiality of it is less egregious than was the case in THE LADY IN THE LAKE.

What also contributes to the kookiness is the careening tonal shifts in the film as the various scenes collide with each other. Some of that is due to the first-person camera, where actors can't help but play more broadly. That factor seems to have rubbed off on Agnes Moorehead, who is consistently over-the-top (which makes it especially appropriate that her character seems to "leap" rather than "fall" out that window in her "swan song" moment)...