A noir flick based on a Hemingway story, the opening scene is magnificent. This is a b&w tale told in noir pacing through the bifurcated windshield of the 1940s. Two killers show up in a small-town diner looking for the Swede. They want to kill him; it's what they do, and they're not quiet about it. This is a story told in flash-back. One highlight is the Swede's downfall, the femme fatale, Ava Gardner at her peak. She no good. All the men around her, as she's only surrounded by men, are rough but she's the devil. She looks like a different species when you first set eyes on her. The room is full of men who roughly look and dress alike and then you see her, on the bed *surprise* looking like an alien being. She's all smooth purring greed, which is lust-adjacent, so. Fact is, everybody in this flick is tough as nails. The best friend cop, the jilted good-girl girlfriend, the insurance investigator, even the lone diner who faced the killers. In this noir world everyone has as an iron will that's a bit twisted.