This Cannes contender was shot on a shoestring while director Edward Dmytryk was in creative exile in England after refusing to play ball with the House Un-American Activities. It's not too much of a surprise that the bad guy in this dark noir is a crass American (Phil Brown) who gets what's coming to him after canoodling with the wrong unfaithful wife (elegant blonde Sally Gray). When her husband Dr. Clive Riordan (Robert Newton) finds out he's been cuckolded, he concocts a Hitchcockian "perfect plan" to dispose of the other man, including the psychological torture of a bathtub slowly filled with corrosive acid. Among Dmytryk's challenges was finding a trained dog for a key plot point, but his greater challenge was directing Newton: the actor familiar to Disney fans from Treasure Island (1950) had a reputation as a mean drunk. The director insisted on a £20,000 bond that Newton would forfeit if he drank alcohol during production. Newton kept his word, but Dmytryk later remarked "If we had been a few days over schedule, I doubt he would have made it." Unavailable for years because of Dmytryk's ruined reputation, this taut British noir later garnered the critical acclaim it deserved.

By Violet LeVoit