Suspense

... but then things began to gel.

A down and out guy from out of town, Joe Morgan (Barry Sullivan), asks for a job at Frank Leonard's (Albert Dekker's) Ice Palace. Frank gives him a job for $25 a week selling peanuts. Meanwhile Joe lays eyes on the star attraction and the boss' wife, Roberta (Belita) and likes what he sees.

The boss notices the attraction between the two from the start, but oddly offers Joe a job assisting Harry (Eugene Palette) after Joe comes up with a great gimmick for Roberta's act. Then Frank leaves town and leaves Joe in charge of the operation. What WAS he thinking? Why didn't he get rid of this obvious social climber (and wife climber too if he could manage it) when he was just selling peanuts? When Frank returns, he decides to separate Joe and his wife for awhile and he asks Roberta if she would like a few weeks in the mountains at their cabin, and she is enthusiastic.

So what does Joe do? He goes to the cabin on a silly business pretext so he can see the wife that looks exactly like a silly business pretext so he can see the wife...in an isolated cabin...full of hunting rifles...with a husband whose jealousy is slowly turning to rage. I will tell you no more specific plot points. Watch and find out what happens.

What comes next are a bunch of occurrences that are, on their own, pretty good noir plot points and touches, but put together don't make much sense. In particular I was expecting more from the ending. You wonder how much is real and how much is imagined, by all parties. Was Eugene Palette's character just OK with having a peanut salesman replace him as boss? Was Joe's old girlfriend - who shows up completely unwanted and rejected by Joe and vowing revenge - having anything to do with what was going on? What was the talented character actor George E. Stone even doing here since he had so little to do?

Some touch ups on the hanging ends of the plot points and this could have been a classic noir - maybe an 8 or even a 9. But add what I just told you to what I thought were excessive musical numbers by mediocre talent as part of the Ice Show and I have to settle for a 7. Not bad considering its poverty row roots.