John Alton, the Hungarian-born cinematographer (author of “Painting With Light”), is coming to be regarded as one of the greatest cameramen in film history. Certainly his work in film noir is without parallel. As writer/director Paul Schrader notes: “the greatest master of noir was Hungarian-born John Alton, an expressionist cinematographer who could relight Times Square at noon if necessary. No cinematographer better adapted the old expressionistic techniques to the new desire for realism, and his black and white photography in such gritty film noir as T-Men, Raw Deal, I The Jury and The Big Combo equals that of such German expressionist masters as Fritz Wagner and Karl Freund.”

Although William K. Everson considers this film little more than a routine Republic B-picture, he notes that it is given some style by John Alton's camerawork, which is far more imaginative than one could expect in a production of this type. The story concerns a young reporter who passes as a murderer in order to save an innocent man.