Yesterday I managed to squeeze in time to watch this classic directed by Robert Aldrich. It's one of my favorite genres as a crime/drama/film noir film. Cloris Leachman was in it for all of ten minutes and the rest of the cast were lesser known actors of the time: Ralph Meeker, Maxine Cooper, etc.
As Netflix describes, it's about a mysterious half-clothed hitchhiking woman a sleazy private investigator picks up on the highway outside of small town Calabasas (I know, right? Opening shots are of the "Calabasas Garage") as he drives into Los Angeles, a gang of shady guys run his car off the road and pull him and the woman from the accident and kill her. As he recovers from the accident, he becomes more and more interested in what these men wanted with the woman. As he involves himself using the few clues she gave him as to her identity, the men send warning he is delving into dangerous territory.
Lots of people die, which was frustrating. The connections he made with the clues were not obvious to me and difficult to follow. There were some really interesting characters like a slutty blonde sister of a gangster who was a Marlyn Monroe wanna-be, and a small Mexican garage mechanic who was quite funny. When I watch these films i have to remember the role of women in the 50's because some of their behavior is rather pathetic.
The ending was absolutely ridiculous. The acting was mediocre. The plot was not carefully thought out. The cinematography was fabulous though, as was the advanced 1950's special effects. I'm glad I saw it, but it was definitely nothing above two or three stars.
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