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The decorated veteran comes back home to find the butterfly wife maintaining her ways. He wasn't too shocked, since he knew her manners, but thought that she would have changed post motherhood. He was still ready to forgive her, and try to have another go but when she blurted out, that she was the reason of the son's death, the bond was broken, and he walked out. Her current lover too was bored of her, and preferred that she kept herself to her husband and leave him alone, probably so that he could get his estranged wife back. The spurned lover had a secret, and she threatened him with exposure, unless he came back to her, and remained so. Meanwhile the wife calls the husband's friends, to locate him, and his closest friend, with a mental disorder due to injury, making him violent as well as semi-amnesic in presence of loud noise, comes over to understand what went wrong and collect the man, and escort him back to his place. He doesn't find him, but finds the wife, who puts a dope on him, to his horror and repugnance, when he comes to know that this woman was his best friends wife. At night the philandering wife is killed, and then it is who dunnit. Husband, the prime suspect, we know didn't, but police thought otherwise. He has the maximum motive to kill the wife, unfaithful as well as son's killer. Then the lover, whom she was turning into her puppet, courtesy some damning secret she had on him. The husband's best friend, who abhorred her so much, that under the trauma (the loud music she was playing), he could have killed her. The paramour's partner/manager who wanted the paramour to be rid of her and may be a few more.
The movie moves along in nice pace, and there are nothing very strikingly discordant about it. The meeting of the protagonist, was chance, but these chances, even in real life, creates stories, so I won't harp on that. If I start on it, even "It happened One Night" was pure chance, and in any real life story, there would be many such factors, which would direct the course. Was it fantastic? I don't think it was entirely improbable or bordering on impossibility. Of the whole story, there are a few factors which does border on very high improbability, and those should have been modified.First was entirely useless. The husband throwing the gun disdainfully before leaving. No one would do that. He definitely didn't leave it, so that the wife could use it on herself, since it was clear she didn't have any intention of doing that. Then why? The investigation in fact didn't harp on the gun used for killing being husband's service revolver. So this unnecessary sequence could have been avoided, disdain could have been shown without it.The much more improbable was the son's death, or the circumstances. The wife was a man-eater and highly 'spirit'-ed woman. With that set-up, I don't suppose she would be taking her son to the parties, where she was hunting for fish. First the presence of the son would be a deterrent on her intended targets, he would have an effect much more than a chaperone has. Second, the son was not baby but a boy. Any normal woman would keep him away from her private activities. The death, due to her carelessness, even may be under intoxication, could have been better managed. Another question arises, how did the paramour know she was murdered, when it could have been a suicide as well? It was brought in to make him prime suspect, in the eyes of audience. But then it should have been explained how he knew. That wasn't done. Except these few incongruities, I didn't find any stark one. The romantic angle between Ms Lake and Ladd had been kept on a very low profile, but that is understood. She was still married, may be estranged, and may be was no more in love, but still did care for her husband's welfare. So starting a torrid romance would have been a bit eyesore, and it remained at the stage, where she cared, may be a bit more than care, to provide the irrefutable alibi of his innocence, but still not in head over heels in love.Ladd, Bendix, Howard Da Silva, Lake, Helen Morrison etc fitted the role. Don Costello seemed a bit soft for his line of work, a bit, but not too incongruous. In fact the one I found a bit puzzling was the second friend, George Copeland (Hugh Beaumont), the lawyer. He was almost villainous, most unsympathetic to the protagonist. This isn't really understood, especially when the hero had been the life saver for both, as they claimed, in many sorties.
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Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) returns home from the war with his two buddies (William Bendix, Hugh Beaumont). It's not a happy homecoming for Johnny as he finds his wife has been seeing another man. But that's not the worst of it. He finds out from her that their young son died in a car accident because she was drunk driving. When his wife is later found murdered with his gun, Johnny becomes the prime suspect. He evades police while he tries to find the real killer, receiving help from a woman (Veronica Lake) he met the night of the murder.This is the third Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake movie. It re-teams them with their Glass Key costar William Bendix. Many say it's the best of their films together. For my money that's This Gun for Hire but this is number two. Ladd's in top form, tough as nails and cool as ice. Lake's beautiful and plays her part well. Yeah it's not one of her best roles but it's better than some of the negative reviews seem to say. The Ladd/Lake chemistry is also on display, which is always a plus. Hugh Beaumont has one of his best pre-Beaver roles. Doris Dowling is particularly unsympathetic as Ladd's despicable wife. The rest of the cast features solid players like Howard Da Silva, Will Wright, Don Costello, and Tom Powers. The scene stealer, just like in The Glass Key, is William Bendix as Ladd's quick-tempered buddy who suffered a head injury in the war. Raymond Chandler's Oscar-nominated screenplay is full of great lines and dripping with cynical noir attitude. It's a well-paced film with an interesting story and good characters. The killer's identity was changed after complaints from the Navy but I think it worked out for the best as the original killer would have been very obvious. Love the look of this movie, too. It's definitely one you should check out, especially if you're a fan of Raymond Chandler or the stars.
