During the early days of his career as a Hollywood director, Anthony Mann turned out a series of B crime flicks at RKO and Republic. This was Mann's fifth and final assignment at Republic, made just before he moved over to Eagle-Lion and MGM. What we have is a well-orchestrated piece of suspenseful hokum, with plot holes big enough to drive a truck through them. But it is nonetheless an engaging way to spend about an hour of one's time if you don't object to mindless entertainment.
The most interesting performer in the cast is Hillary Brooke. She plays an attractive but scheming lab employee who assists Brenda Marshall's chemist with a series of experiments. Some of this lab testing leads to a minor explosion. Brooke, who covets another doctor at the research institute where they work- a man (William Gargan) who keeps proposing to Marshall, not to Brooke- would rather there be a bigger explosion that will send Marshall up in a could of smoke, permanently.
Brooke seemingly gets her wish when through a series of plot contrivances that can only occur in a Hollywood movie, Marshall appears to get injured during an experiment with her face severely disfigured.
Marshall convalesces at a hospital and Brooke manipulates the situation to tell Gargan that Marshall, bothered by her horrible disfigurement, no longer wishes to see him. Gargan being the sap he is seems to take Brooke's word for it. Even more ludicrously, he accepts a date with Brooke not realizing she is angling to get closer and marry him in Marshall's place.
There is a subplot involving another gal (Ruth Ford) who was involved in a small fender bender with Marshall. Ford is egged on by a shyster ambulance chaser- is there any other kind- to put the screws to Marshall and extort a considerable sum of money from her. When Marshall refuses to go along with the ruse, a confrontation takes place in Marshall's apartment after she's just gotten home from the hospital.
A gun that Ford brought to the scene goes off and Ford then falls over the balcony, dying as she hits the concrete sidewalk below. It is very convenient from a plot standpoint that Ford lands on her face and wrecks her face so much that she can be mistaken for the disfigured Marshall.
This frees Marshall up to take Ford's identity and travel across the country to get a proper amount of plastic surgery- with no real explanation how she got the money for all these costly procedures.
As soon as she's healed, Marshall intends to return to win Gargan back; though I am sure there were plenty of more handsome, less dopey men she could have chosen at the facility where she underwent the surgery.
By the time Marshall does return to reclaim Gargan, he is already married to Brooke. They both don't recognize her, despite the fact Marshall's voice, height and various mannerisms did not change. Eventually Brooke realizes what is going on, that Marshall is her former nemesis and this sets the stage for the final act.
Speaking of the film's final act, it is rather clever that Marshall, assumed to be Ford, will be apprehended and blamed for her own "death." Yet, we are short-changed to an extent, because instead of seeing Marshall's actions backfire spectacularly, with her placed into the electric chair, the narrative abruptly shifts gears...
We learn Marshall dreamt the whole thing. She'd fallen into a deep sleep after injecting herself with a chemical during an experiment she had been conducting at the beginning of the movie. It cheats the audience, though obviously it's done to facilitate a happy ending between Marshall and Gargan.
The moral seems to be that a woman cannot find happiness unless she agrees to marry a man and give him children, regardless of how unintelligent or unworthy he may be. That if she doesn't sacrifice a career outside the home, then her nightmares may become reality.
The most interesting performer in the cast is Hillary Brooke. She plays an attractive but scheming lab employee who assists Brenda Marshall's chemist with a series of experiments. Some of this lab testing leads to a minor explosion. Brooke, who covets another doctor at the research institute where they work- a man (William Gargan) who keeps proposing to Marshall, not to Brooke- would rather there be a bigger explosion that will send Marshall up in a could of smoke, permanently.
Brooke seemingly gets her wish when through a series of plot contrivances that can only occur in a Hollywood movie, Marshall appears to get injured during an experiment with her face severely disfigured.
Marshall convalesces at a hospital and Brooke manipulates the situation to tell Gargan that Marshall, bothered by her horrible disfigurement, no longer wishes to see him. Gargan being the sap he is seems to take Brooke's word for it. Even more ludicrously, he accepts a date with Brooke not realizing she is angling to get closer and marry him in Marshall's place.
There is a subplot involving another gal (Ruth Ford) who was involved in a small fender bender with Marshall. Ford is egged on by a shyster ambulance chaser- is there any other kind- to put the screws to Marshall and extort a considerable sum of money from her. When Marshall refuses to go along with the ruse, a confrontation takes place in Marshall's apartment after she's just gotten home from the hospital.
A gun that Ford brought to the scene goes off and Ford then falls over the balcony, dying as she hits the concrete sidewalk below. It is very convenient from a plot standpoint that Ford lands on her face and wrecks her face so much that she can be mistaken for the disfigured Marshall.
This frees Marshall up to take Ford's identity and travel across the country to get a proper amount of plastic surgery- with no real explanation how she got the money for all these costly procedures.
As soon as she's healed, Marshall intends to return to win Gargan back; though I am sure there were plenty of more handsome, less dopey men she could have chosen at the facility where she underwent the surgery.
By the time Marshall does return to reclaim Gargan, he is already married to Brooke. They both don't recognize her, despite the fact Marshall's voice, height and various mannerisms did not change. Eventually Brooke realizes what is going on, that Marshall is her former nemesis and this sets the stage for the final act.
Speaking of the film's final act, it is rather clever that Marshall, assumed to be Ford, will be apprehended and blamed for her own "death." Yet, we are short-changed to an extent, because instead of seeing Marshall's actions backfire spectacularly, with her placed into the electric chair, the narrative abruptly shifts gears...
We learn Marshall dreamt the whole thing. She'd fallen into a deep sleep after injecting herself with a chemical during an experiment she had been conducting at the beginning of the movie. It cheats the audience, though obviously it's done to facilitate a happy ending between Marshall and Gargan.
The moral seems to be that a woman cannot find happiness unless she agrees to marry a man and give him children, regardless of how unintelligent or unworthy he may be. That if she doesn't sacrifice a career outside the home, then her nightmares may become reality.