When Alfred Hitchcock protégé Joan Harrison landed at RKO in 1946, she pulled an abandoned script from deep in the archives to make her producing debut at the studio now revered as “The House of Noir.” Ace scenarist Jonathan Latimer does a bang-up job reeling out the mystery behind the murder of a prominent Hollywood songwriter. He also has fun upending star George Raft’s tough-guy persona, making his police detective a milk-drinking mama’s boy (“mama” being screen vet Mabel Paige in maybe her biggest role ever). Despite the less-than-inspired direction of Edwin L. Marin (Raft’s de rigueur director), Harrison assembled the studio’s top craftsmen for this hardboiled but humorous noir: cinematographer Harry J. Wild gets the most out of designer Robert Boyle’s sets and Leigh Harline contributes an evocative score. The film also marked the screen debut of actors Joe Pevney (Body and Soul, Thieves’ Highway ) and Virginia Huston (Out of the Past).
Music Box Theatre screens films of all genres and from every era of cinema, both new releases and repertory. These films may sometimes contain upsetting, outdated, or offensive material. While we aim to introduce many of our screenings, we do not always provide warnings about potentially triggering content within the films we screen. We encourage our patrons to research the film before they attend using trailers, reviews, or content information found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com.
Also Part Of NOIR CITY: Chicago 2026
