Off-beat casting and a sharp Mankiewicz script take this a cut above many of the
film noir pieces of the late 1930s and early 1940s. Harens is going home to San Francisco for Christmas but a rainstorm causes the young Army man to stay over in New Orleans. He meets Durbin, a cynical
22-year-old singer, in a tacky nightclub. They go to church at midnight and she pours her heart out to him. She is married to Kelly who is in jail for having murdered a bookie. Flashback, and we see her meet Kelly at a concert, where he is all charm. Kelly and his mother, Sondergaard, are the
final members of a well-known and once-wealthy Louisiana clan. Durbin marries him, but so...
Released:
1944
Rated:
NR
Length:
98 mins