Deadline At Dawn

Take a hard-edged Cornell Woolrich story about the people who prowl by night, give it a screenplay by Clifford Odets, one of America's most literate authors, add the direction of a Broadway rather than a Hollywood director and what do you have? A mish-mash, that's what. Bill Williams is a sailor in NYC, away from his home base in Norfolk. He winds up playing poker in a rigged game with Calleia at his cafe. Lane, Calleia's sister, slips him some knockout potion. Upon awakening, he discovers that he has well over a thousand bucks in his pocket, but he doesn't know whence it came. It's two in the morning, he is dizzy, and he doesn't know what to do so he enlists Haywa...