It was films like these that put American movies on the map! This picture comes at you like a punch in the gut.<br /><br />In English-speaking countries all over the world: Britain, Australia, East Africa, audiences must have looked at movies like this one and said, This is how it is; This is real. The French coined a term for them that stuck: **film noir**, "dark film". The action is almost all indoor, mostly at night. The dark and the darker sides of human character are depicted.<br /><br />There were no gee-whiz special effects in 1952. Even color film was relatively rare. In the seamy, sordid world depicted here it would have been out of place, anyway. It was great acting, great directing and a sharp script that made these pictures fly.<br /><br />By great good fortune, the fifty plus year old print is well preserved.