Workman like B-Noir

Decent attempt at the genre for an el cheapo picture, though lots of loose ends, the murderer doesn't explain his sudden change of heart at the end when he decides to stop running, though at a taut 62 minutes there's not a lot of time to develop much. Mrs Bennett's propensity to trust the safety & well-being of her only son (the freckle-faced brat around who much of the movie's action revolves) to a complete stranger who's just mysteriously lobbed in to the boarding house takes some explaining - unless we accept her niece the hard-boiled blonde's suggestion that the widow is instantly smitten with him. Best scene of the movie has Willy (Roscoe Ates) rolling into the house drunk in the middle of the night whilst unsuccessfully trying to juggle about 20 cans of beer in his unsteady hands. The ever-reliable Billy House (a favourite of Orson Welles) as the jocular neighbour McFee also lightens the film's tone. Curio: Willy at one point describes what happened to the murdered woman as getting a "heart manicure".