This Side Of The Law (1950)

A man (Kent Smith), trapped in the bottom of a closed well with no way of escape, ponders the circumstances that got him there. In flashback, we see he was sentenced to jail for 30 days on vagrancy charges when a stranger (Robert Douglas, THE FOUNTAINHEAD) bails him out and proposes that he assume a missing man's identity for a large sum of money. Crosses and double crosses and murder follow. Directed by Richard L. Bare (FLAXY MARTIN). If the screenplay had been a little less far fetched and the hero not so dimwitted, this might have been an efficient, tight little second tier noir. It also doesn't help that Smith is the blandest of actors. The most interesting character is the venomous and duplicitous sister in law (Janis Paige) of the missing man, the most noir-ish of the characters. The massive mansion on the edge of some cliffs, reminiscent of REBECCA's Manderley, is the impressive work of Hugh Reticker. Viveca Lindfors is the missing man's long suffering wife and John Alvin as his weak brother.