Take One False Step (1949)

On a business trip to Los Angeles, a happily married college professor (William Powell) meets an old flame (Shelley Winters). When driving her home, she attempts to seduce him but he rejects her advances. The next day she disappears and the professor becomes the number one suspect in her disappearance. Based on the short story NIGHT CALL by David and Irwin Shaw and directed by Chester Erskine (THE EGG AND I). This is one of those movies where the protagonist (in this case, Powell) does one stupid thing after another and gets deeper and deeper into trouble. Common sense could have avoided the contrived messiness that follows but then, of course, there wouldn't be much of a movie. But it's hard to sympathize with someone who gets into trouble because of his own stupidity. Still, it moves quickly and there's enough activity to hold our attention but when it's over, you feel duped. With Marsha Hunt, Dorothy Hart, James Gleason, Sheldon Leonard and Felix Bressart.