THE SCARLET HOUR

A surprisingly tough piece of pulp fiction from an unlikely source. Michael Curtiz made "The Scarlet Hour" in 1956 but it wasn't really a success, perhaps because its leads, newcomers Carol Ohmart and Tom Tryon, weren't really up to the job. She's the unhappily married younger wife of James Gregory and he's Gregory's right-hand man with whom she's having an affair. The convoluted plot has them overhearing some gangsters planning a robbery so she talks Tryon into robbing the robbers so she can get away from her husband.

Basically it's a B-Movie and its "Double Indemnity" style plot isn't new but it exerts a tawdry fascination and as well as Gregory there's a good supporting cast that also includes Elaine Stritch and E.G. Marshall not to mention Nat King Cole singing 'Never Let Me Go'. If it's not in the top-drawer of crime movies there are enough twists and turns to give it an edge over some others in the genre and Curtiz's direction is, for the most part, pretty faultless. It's just a pity about Ohmart and Tryon.