Heflin and Keyes are fine, though I'm not terribly impressed with either. The story has a subversive edge to it, but it's really not THAT edgy. Miller is not a noir cinematographer, and only a few shots are interesting. But the main issue is that it's kinda slow. Not painfully so, but it definitely is a bit sluggish. I did like how the film went in a couple of different directions that I didn't expect, and overall my complaints are fairly minor. But it isn't the masterpiece I was led to believe.

Sometimes my pleasure in watching noir comes from having a film make me think "Wow, I can't believe they got away with that," and this film seemed to make me feel that way every 10 minutes. It's not a particularly fast paced film, but that's more than made up by just how sharp and unexpected the turns are. Even when I saw them coming I was still surprised by the way they were executed. Heflin and Keyes both have unique screen presence and they really make it work for their conflicted characters.

Van Heflin was incredible. He's a combination of James Cagney and Michael Shannon rolled into one. Just a hell of a screen presence! This was my first time seeing Heflin and I will now seek out more of his films. Evelyn Keyes was also great and it was nice seeing a very complex female character in a film noir. The roles were basically reversed with Heflin being the "femme fatale" - really interesting stuff. A lot of the dialogue felt very contemporary as well! Highly recommended.

Van Heflin gives an extraordinary performance as a cop with a heart of stone in this absorbing, mood-drenched film expertly directed by Losey. What a nice switch for once: a noir that features a manipulative bad news man, an "homme fatal."