Susan Hayward won an Oscar for her oddly compelling performance in this noir procedural.

Not going to lie – I love a title with punctuation.

And I love Susan Hayward’s awkward, jerky, brittle portrayal of Barbara Graham, a desperate woman headed for the gas chamber. She’s weird and stagey, and it works perfectly against the droll, deadpan world of the film. You don’t exactly like her, but you root for her anyways because she seems more alive than her surroundings. Virginia Vincent shines as the friend who unexpectedly stands by her.

A great movie might have more deeply questioned the role the press has not just in her vilification, but also in her would-be redemption. It seems unlikely that the newsman pressing for her release genuinely believes in her innocence.

The great final sequence is still powerful in its simple mechanics, in spite of the corny elements Robert Wise uses to generate empathy.

Underrated and worth a look.