Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Raymond Burr | ... | Col. Ben Marquand | |
Martha Hyer | ... | Melinda Marquand | |
Joan Bennett | ... | Mrs. Marquand | |
Ken Scott | ... | Lonnie Wilson | |
Brett Halsey | ... | Dr. Ned Thomas | |
Edward Binns | ... | Luke Connett | |
Margaret Field | ... | Maude Wilson (as Maggie Mahoney) | |
Douglas Fowley | ... | Zuba Wilson | |
Kelly Thordsen | ... | Sheriff Wheaton | |
Rex Ingram | ... | Burt Crane | |
Jack Ging | ... | Peter Marquand | |
Anne Helm | ... | Cass Wilson | |
Irene Ryan | ... | Nora Finney | |
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Paul Baxley | ... | Thurman Case |
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Robert Earle | ... | Virgil |
Lonnie Wilson, the son of a toothless sharecropper, Zuba Wilson, returns to small southern hometown after spending six years on the chain-gang for killing Colonel Ben Marquand's son in an automobile accident. He revives his love affair with Melinda Marquand, who is now Mrs. Melinda Thomas, since she married Dr. Ned Thomas, while Lonnie was serving time, in her place, for the accident she caused. Somewhat miffed about all this, Lonnie incites Dr. Ned about his wife's infidelity, which Dr. Ned verifies when he catches Lonnie and Melinda in a semi-torrid embrace in Colonel Marquand's hunting lodge. Melinda, looking for an explanation for this situation, shoots and wounds Lonnie to defend her innocence by claiming she was being raped. Colonel Marquand,who had bribed Lonnie to take the blame for his daughter, uses her story to try and have Sheriff Wheaton kill Lonnie, and put an end to all this mess. But there is another reel or two before this mess ends. Written by Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
This could have been written by Eugene O'Neill or Tennessee Williams, it's a southern family drama filmed entirely on location in Lousiana, and all the ordinary ingredients are there: a tyrannical autocratic father, a harassed younger son, a lewd daughter and a mad mother, an old faithful coloured servant (Rex Ingram), a corrupt police officer, and the rural innocent family, the son getting out of jail after six years for having taken the blame for the accidental death of the lewd blonde daughter's little brother, which drove the mother (Joan Bennett) mad, with the promise that he would have her when he got out, and when he does he finds her married to another.
That's the set-up. A major part is played by the music, which is very sensually jazzy all the way, stressing the decadent sexual strain of the film, but all the actors are good, Raymond Burr as the father finds himself back home in the role of an overbearing villain, taking a pause from Perry Mason, Martha Hyer as Melinda is seductive and wicked enough, her father's true daughter, you can feel the sorely tried Ken Scott 's patience gradually bursting all through the film, but in spite of the shoot-out the finale is relatively mild. Fortunately there is a journalist and doctor at hand to get things straight.