Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), a well-dressed but down-on-his-luck drifter, feigns sleep but gets pulled off a bus in the hamlet of Walton because he does not have the fare to continue to San Francisco. He finds a low-budget diner called "Pop's Eats", where Pop is worried about waitress Stella (Linda Darnell) because she has not shown up for work for days. Ex-New York cop Mark Judd (Charles Bickford) tells him not to worry, and the sultry Stella soon returns. Stanton is attracted to her, but she is unimpressed by his smooth talk.
Stanton cons his way into a job with Professor Madley (John Carradine), a traveling fortune teller and spiritualist. He goes to the large house of Clara Mills (Anne Revere), daughter of the late mayor, Abraham Mills.
The townspeople are unwilling to buy tickets to Madley's "spook meeting" because Clara Mills, an influential local spinster, disapproves. Stanton gets to Clara through her inexperienced younger sister, June (Alice Faye), and persuades them to attend the performance.
Madley stages an entertaining séance, channeling Abraham Mills, the deceased father of Clara and June. Using information secretly dug up by his assistant Joe Ellis (Olin Howland), Madley brings up the sisters' financial problems. The two become upset and leave.
Stanton gets to know Stella, watching her steal from the cash register and go out with men, and falls in love with her. She makes it clear that she wants a man who is willing to marry her and buy her a home, which he agrees to do. To raise the money, Stanton romances and marries June, planning to divorce her as soon as he can. Clara, who has been victimized by a man of Stanton's type in her past, is unable to prevent their marriage.
Stanton cannot stay away from Stella, even on his wedding night. Instead of sleeping with his wife, he goes to Stella, who has given up on him. He explains his odd scheme to her. She rejects him and he leaves watched by Clara who has followed him. He gets home late and is found by June sleeping on the couch.
The next day Stella is found to be murdered. Judd is asked by the local police chief to investigate. He first tries to beat a confession out of Stella's latest boyfriend, Dave Atkins (Bruce Cabot), but Atkins has an airtight alibi. Stanton is also a strong suspect, having been seen quarreling with Stella shortly before her death. Judd tells him not to leave town.
Stanton flees, with June, to a seedy hotel room in San Francisco. He tells her all about his drifter's life of failed schemes. June tells Stanton that she loves him; the next morning, when she goes to the bank to withdraw her money, she is taken into custody for questioning.
Stanton returns to Pop's Eats, where Judd is waiting for him. Stanton has found evidence of Judd’s relationship with Stella and how he left NY police because of his violence. Stella had decided to marry Atkins rather than wait for Judd's wife to give him a divorce.
Judd pulls out his gun but Pop wrestles it away. Stanton prevents him from shooting Judd, though a shot is fired into the ceiling. This brings a police officer in, and Judd is arrested. Outside, June pulls up in a car and asks Stanton where they are going. He tells her, "Home."
A 1945 American Black & White film-noir produced & directed by Otto Preminger, screenplay by Harry Kleiner, based on Marty Holland's 1945 novel of the same name, cinematography by Joseph LaShelle, starring Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford, Anne Revere, Bruce Cabot, John Carradine, Percy Kilbride, and Olin Howland.
The jukebox at Pop's joint is a 1939 Seeburg Symphonia Vogue.
This was Faye's last film as a major Hollywood star. Married to Phil Harris and raising two young daughters, she did not appear in another film until "State Fair" (1962). Faye read and rejected over thirty scripts before accepting this movie, which she hoped to be another "Laura" (1944). The actress' best scenes were cut and the film ended her long-term association with Fox.
Linda Darnell spent a week working as a waitress in the Fox studio commissary to prepare for her role.
Cinematographer, Joseph LaShelle, also worked with Preminger on "Laura" (1944). Preminger used much of the same crew.
The writer of the novel, Marty Holland, born Mary Havenstein, was a $40/week typist at Paramount when she was paid $40,000 for the rights to her novel.
Otto Preminger's famous interest in the opening credits of his films precedes his long association with the legendary title designer Saul Bass, as this film shows. All the credits at the start of the film are written on road-signs passed by the bus as the story begins.
Those who wish to place Otto Preminger in the pantheon of great film auteurs can certainly point to this stylish film as a splendid example of the director's talent at its prime during his Twentieth Century Fox contract years before he became famous as the self-promoting independent director/producer of controversial, censorship-busting films.