The Gentleman from Nowhere

For seven years an insurance company has been pursuing the man whom they believe stole $80,000 from a chemical company. They had to pay out on the claim. They think they have located the guilty man, Warner Baxter. However, a thorough identity check proves he's not the man. Meanwhile, insurance investigator Luis van Rooten has gone to the company, informed them he has the man... and Charles Lane offers to pay for the money, plus money for van Rooten, plus more for Baxter for going to prison, for some one else, of course. Baxter agrees. So it's off to Los Angeles, and the missing man's wife, Fay Baker, who, Baxter is told, was carrying on an affair with an officer of the company when the money was stolen. She denies it. As Baxter waits, out on bail, other officers of the company step forward, with inconsistent stories and the lies multiply. Who is telling the truth? Did the missing man steal the money? Who is killing company officers?

It's a fine noir from director William Castle, with some nice noir lighting by cinematographer Vincent J. Farrar, and tearing at the edges of femme fatale vs. good girl, mob lawyer vs. honest lawyer and.... well, many of the archetypes of film noir. We may remember Castle as the gimmicky producer-director of hokey horror movies of the early 1960s, but he was also a man who could work seriously with a small budget, and brought ROSEMARY'S BABY to Paramount.... and then got politicked out of making it himself. Maybe he couldn't have made the classic that Polanski did, even with big money, but we'll never find out. He died in 1977, aged 63.