Orson was directing The Magnificent Ambersons by day and acting in this at night - he's not too happy with his own performance which seems to him like a parody of a cynic. It is not true that he co-directed though he did co-write it with Jo Cotten, and 'planned' it, particularly with what he thought was a novel beginning - a pre-credits scene involving the assassin and his sticking record-player. (He later found out there'd been a pre-credit scene in Of Mice and Men.) He didn't like the way it turned out - felt the studio had cut out interesting performances, turned it into a B thriller, when he described Eric Ambler's source material as 'antiheroic and antiaction'. (He also wrote the somewhat cerebral The Mask of Dimitrios.) I have to say that it is in a way a bit of a mess, but the Kafkaesque beginning and ship with all sorts of interesting types - murderers included - and the brilliant photography of Karl Struss do produce an engaging (though short) end result, with quite a few laughs.
With Dolores del Rio, Ruth Warrick, Agnes Moorehead, Jack Durant, Everett Sloane, Eustace Wyatt, Jack Moss good as killer.
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