SPOILERS FOLLOW
Why would Elisha Cook Jr. try to murder Zachary Scott and Dorothy Malone in order to keep them both quiet if all he's only going to do with the sheriff who saw him abducting them is -- are you ready for this? -- lock the poor geezer in a wardrobe closet?
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of trying to murder Scott and Malone?
A better question to ask is how does Cook know that Scott is in Malone's house? Besides the old biddy neighbor, no one else knows where Scott is.
Some noticeable flaws in the film but not a terrible film. It could have been terrific with a better script and director. As it is, I'd give it 3 stars out of 5.
3/5? You're more generous than I am. I'd say 2/5. But I agree, it could've been a good movie if they'd turned the script over to Ben Hecht or Frank Fenton or Richard Brooks or any of the dozens of writers from that era who knew their way around a film noir.
But this movie is so ineptly written that at one point they even have an apartment being locked from the outside, so Virginia Mayo can't escape. Say what??
Come on, guys. That sort of thing isn't just dumb. It's downright insulting.
It is weirdly written. The setup is not bad but how it gets from one scenario to another, it's strange. Goes to show that idiot plots had been around forever.
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