Hugo Haas co-wrote and directed this classic film noir that is quite nasty.
Haas stars as Jan Horak, a lonely widowed man who works for the railroad and lives a quiet life. On one of his rare days off her goes into town to a small carnival and runs into a beautiful blonde named Betty (Beverly Michaels).
They seem to hit it off pretty well and Betty finds herself in a very tight spot so she decides the only way out is to marry Jan, who has a good savings account. They marry and almost over night Betty changes.
Things get worse when Jan goes deaf for some unknown reason and that gives Betty and Jan's helper Steve (Allen Nixon) a chance to be together. However one day Jan has a small auto accident and regains his hearing, but he doesn't let anyone know.
He sits and listens to Betty berate him and how she wishes he were dead. Betty even tries to convince Steve to kill Jan. In the end nothing works out well for either Betty or Steve, but Jan turns out fine.
There is a lot of hateful dialogue in this film, and it comes from Michael's character of Betty. She is easily one of the most evil women to appear in any film noir.
Hass usually acted with Cleo Moore and I guess since she wasn't available for this film, Columbis hired Beverly Michaels, a sexy tall blonde who carries her role extremely well.
The rest of the cast includes Howland Chamberlain, Marjorie Beckett, Jack Daley and Bernard Gorcey. Check this one out if you get a chance to see it.
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