Clinically excellent noir drama. Plot Summary - First Paragraph Screenwriter Dixon Steele is very talented, he also drinks too much and is prone to outbreaks of shocking violence. Thus the studios are reluctant to hire him, but through sheer determination, his agent manages to get him a coveted writing assignment to adapt a popular novel. The main players in the proposed picture meet up at… see more...

Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame are on great form in this complex and intricate crime noir. He ("Dixon") is a down-on-his-luck writer who finds himself squarely in the eyes of the police, suspected of murder. Fortunately, and somewhat out of the blue, his neighbour turns up at the station and gives him a cast iron alibi. She ("Laurel") saw the victim leave his home, and he stayed put! Now at t… see more...