I love film noir. And this was new to me, amazingly. So I definitely enjoyed it.
However, it is not good. The plot has red herrings and scenes unrelated to anything else more than any other movie by a major director hat I can think of.
OK. It doesn't make much sense. The narrative logic is filled with holes.
Still, it is enjoyable.
First off, my hat is off to Nancy Guild. I swear I had never heard of her before this. But, even at age 19, she's very good. She beautiful -- a little like Alexis Smith and even more like one of my great favorites Patricia Neal. She is no Duse but she does an excellent job in a pivotal role.
John Hodiak is good, though perhaps encouraged to overdo the vacant looks even when the amnesia plot seems to have been forgotten.
Margo Woode, with what looks like a bird's nest on her head, is lots of fun as a bad girl. And Josephine Hutchinson is very poignant in a small scene that doesn't seem to me to make sense in the overall plot but has an exciting payoff: Her scream through a window saves our hero from being run over.
The others are good, of course. Lloyd Nolan always was. Ditto Richard Conte. Lou Nova is strangely affecting in a small role.
This is a sprawling big-studio noir from the forties. The short, cheaply made ones are often better. And often they aren't. One never knows on the street of dreams.