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I must have had some expectations about this one since I DVR'd it when it was on TCM. Not sure if it was just a title I didn't recognize, or the fact that it featured Edward G. Robinson, who's always good. In any case, even though it doesn't really cover any new territory, it does contain some fine performances by Eddie G., its other headliners Ginger Rogers and Brian Keith, and also its supporting cast which includes Lorne Greene, Katherine Anderson, Doye O'Dell, and Eve McVeagh as Rogers's estranged sister.
Rogers plays streetwise and sassy Sherry Conley, who's in prison where she's serving the last 11 months of a 5-year sentence until government prosecutor Lloyd Hallett (Robinson) has her moved to a luxury penthouse apartment the weekend before his big case to export gangster Benjamin Costain (Greene). The well-connected gang leader had successfully eliminated all previous witnesses to his criminal activities, the last just before his extradition trial, hence Hallett's desperate and expensive enticements to get Sherry to testify. She's treated to room service meals, hot showers, her own room and even gets to watch television, though there's only a telethon with a goofy cowboy (O'Dell) on the air.
While each of the aforementioned characters is in a "tight spot", it's then revealed that Vince Striker (Keith) is perhaps in the "tightest" spot of all. He's the cop assigned to protect Sherry, even though he's been on the take from Costain for 10 years. Vince, who's initially dismissive of Sherry calling her "sister", becomes more and more attracted to her as they hole up in the apartment over the weekend. Both are lonely and rough edged individuals who find a mutual physical attraction as well. Vince not only buys Sherry a dress, he actually protects her from one of Costain's thugs, killing him in the process but not before Sherry and prison matron Willoughby (Anderson) are wounded in the process.
It's Willoughby's subsequent death from her injuries that enrages Sherry so much that she agrees to testify, forcing Vince to make a fateful decision.
score 7/10
jacobs-greenwood 17 August 2017
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3782471/ |
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23-2-2021 18:10:07