Covered in Peter Bogdanovich's interview only as this:
This is a particularly venomous picture of American life.
The only thing I can tell you about it is that it was the first picture after the McCarthy business [Lang had been blacklisted as a Communist], and I had to shoot it in 20 days. Maybe that's what made it so venomous. [Laughs.]
What's venomous? A woman (Anne Baxter) is jilted by her Korean war soldier beau; accepts a blind date with a womanizer who gets her drunk and tries to rape her. So she slugs him with a poker; then as the police close in, feels increasingly guilty. She approaches a seemingly sympathetic journalist (Richard Conte) who shops her to the police. Oh, Ok - fairly venomous, then.
Raymond Burr is the creep who gives her one too many Polynesian Pearl-Divers, whilst Nat King Cole sings the title song in a rare live appearance. (Well, not that rare. He was in The Blue Dahlia as well.) 'Chinese peas'? Is there really such a thing? (Yes, smart arse - also known as Snow Peas. I'm so suggestible I now really want Chinese food.) Charles Hoffman adapted Vera Caspary's story.
It's a Warner Bros picture - Nick Musaraca imported from RKO. Music by Raoul Kraushaar.
With friends Ann Sothern and Jeff Donnell, Richard Erdman (photographer), George Reeves (detective), Ruth Storey, Victor Sen Yung (uncredited waiter).
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