An excellent illustration of post-war disillusionment as distilled in Hollywood's film noir genre. Mystery writer Raymond Chandler's original script won an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay, and Alan Ladd gives one of his best performances as a soldier who returns home from World War II to become the prime suspect in the murder of his unfaithful wife. Veronica Lake portrays a wise-cracking, seductive runaway who tries to help Ladd evade the police and find the real killer. William Bendix imparts a powerful tragi-comic presence in the role of Ladd's shell-shocked buddy.