It wasn't that Dan Duryea never played nice people. He could be typecast as an evil villain most of the time, but occasionally he got cast as a nice guy. The best examples of this is the movie executive in KATHIE O (1958), who helps a young child actress save her normal life from her mother's clutches, and this film, where he tries to help a condemned man's wife prove the man is innocent. The chief suspect is a crooked nightclub owner (Peter Lorre), and Duryea and the young lady attempt to get the proof to convince a police detective (Broderick Crawford) that Lorre did the the crime. Duryea (a musician) is the boyfriend of the murdered woman, and has an interest in finding the perpetrator. And he does at the end, but at considerable cost.
A superior film noir, and well worth the watching.
A superior film noir, and well worth the watching.