Well acted and directed; gritty stuff for its time.

Stagy, talky. with comical overacting from Kirk Douglas. This film looks very old-fashioned now. George Macready, however, is at his icy best as an abortionist.

The (sub)plot of the wife's premarital abortion is regressive by today's standards, yet still somehow terribly engrossing. Unfortunately, the story goes nowhere for too long and then accelerates too quickly, which may work if you're Douglas' character, but not the audience. Still way more than decent.

Strange how the Hays code restrictions take something that is obviously a central plot point, abortion, and turn it into this omnipresent mystery that's more powerful for the conspicuous absence of the word.I think in this case it enhances the film, making all the drama that much more interesting and actually allows character arcs to go where they otherwise couldn't.Every side story here is perfectly played, and they all tie together into an invective against a black and white view of the world.

Fiery, intense film-noir. Kirk Douglas is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors.

Something of a precursor to "Barney Miller" and "Hill Street Blues". It's quite obviously a stage adaptation, and like The Children's Hour, one wonders how much Wyler watered down the subject matter for Hollywood. I suspect that Dr. Schneider's crimes were originally meant to be illegal abortions. The real-time (or close to it) telling of the story doesn't quite work here. Too much exposition, too much rapid character development. But it was okay in some ways. The comic bits worked well.