Some if it's in the source novel, by James M Cain e.g. "trolley ride... cemetery". But despite knowing about Billy and Raymond Chandler's acrimonious relationship, it's still a fun game to wonder who wrote what - is "honeysuckle smells of murder" Chandler? I don't think we'll ever know.
I always forget exactly the ending, how he basically kills her in cold blood. I mean, she deserves it - she's been playing him from the off - but it's still quite shocking.
Phyllis Dietrichson is in fact the archetypal femme fatale.
According to biographer Maurice Zolotow it was the first film to 'reveal the killer in the opening scene, and tell the story in voice-over flashbacks'. Which is an interesting assertion.
Porter Hall is the passenger on the observation car, Jean Heather is the daughter, Tom Powers the horrible husband, Byron Barr the boyfriend. But Edward G. steals it with his marvellous long takes.
And John Seitz's photography is fantastic. And it's not Miklos Rozsa's main theme which I love so much, it's his incidental 'things are happening, and not good things' score.
Towards the end of the film we were disturbed by an alarm repeatedly sounding - it was about nine thirty. After 25 minutes of searching we finally identified a random smoke alarm in the plants at the front of our neighbour's house! What the fuck was it doing there? They hadn't even heard it. Anyway, it was quite funny really
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