Toothless and insincere, with a plot that's barely worth paying attention to. Van Johnson comes up short, he doesn't handle the hard-boiled lingo very well. But some of the accoutrements are hot stuff. The photography is excellent, the dialogue crackles, there's some nice touches and awesome supporting roles. There's a lot to love but after a while the ho-hum story becomes harder to care about. I really wanted to like this more, but despite its flaws there's definitely some worthwhile elements.