Manhandled

Reasonably entertaining silliness. All the characters in this are so dumb (with the possible exception of Sterling Hayden's--he has little enough to say that it's hard to tell) that it's just annoying by the end. One forgives Dorothy Lamour because of her utter naïveté, but the others... Having the bumbling police double as comic relief was not a happy inspiration, but fortunately for all concerned, the criminals are even stupider. I guess I like my noir a lot more hard-edged.

The crackerjack script is skillful at doling out information in a series of intriguing twists and turns, with a lot of clever details. Duryea does what he does best as the sleazy parasite, Hayden plays it a little shabbier than usual, and Art Smith has an enjoyable turn. Lamour falls a little short but it's not a very meaty role. There's a lot of nice little bits of business and a cynical, seedy edge that occasionally cuts through the more light-hearted nature of the film. A fun little movie.

Dan Duryea was almost too involved with everything to not get caught. Took some of the tension away, though it had a lot of plot going on to fill the time in a entertaining manner. Dorothy Lamour was fairly forgettable in this role, but it was more a story driven crime film than personality based, Also, Duryea was kind of smearing enough of that for everybody. This was okay, but wasn't loving it.