4/10
Douglas plays a nice heavy, but the rest of the film isn't all that distinguished.
28 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This film is also known under the title "Woman in the Shadows".

Fay Wray, Ralph Bellamy,and Melvyn Douglas star in this film. It's obviously not a prestige film for the studio—as Bellamy and especially Douglas are far from familiar faces when the film debuted.

The film begins with Bellamy being released from prison following a conviction for manslaughter—as he killed a man while having a fight. He knows he has a serious anger problem and needs to control it if he plans on staying on the good side of the law. However, a local sheriff seems determined to lock him up again—and the ultra-sleazy Douglas hatches a plan to destroy Bellamy—all after they have a fight that is prompted by Douglas' sexually assault on Wray! At first Wray and Bellamy try to escape—then Wray tries to kiss up to Douglas to get him to drop the charges following the fight. In the end, however, there's a bit of a twist and all is right once again. Overall, this isn't a bad time-passer, but the plot seems pretty tough to believe and the story never really felt that engaging. In addition, when the film began it made a big writing boo-boo. There was way too much exposition to explain back story instead of allowing the action to explain it. In other words, characters had VERY stilted conversations in which they discussed the back story with characters that already should have known this. Sloppy.
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