What to expect
Siodmak expands Hemingway’s brief premise into a fractured inquiry told through several witnesses. Deep shadows and shifting testimony make the dead man less a solved case than a person continually rearranged by memory and desire.
How to ease in
The film begins near the end. Use the investigator as your guide, and let each flashback add a motive rather than expecting one witness to provide the complete truth.
Heads-up
A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes murder, gun violence, robbery, betrayal, fatalism, and period gender stereotypes.
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The Swede’s stillness in the opening frightens me more than the gunmen. Every later story explains part of his surrender, but none restores the moment when he might have chosen otherwise.
— Momo
Credits & versions
- Screenplay
- Anthony Veiller
- Production
- Mark Hellinger · Universal Pictures Company, Inc.
- Cinematography
- Woody Bredell
Credits
Version map
Sources for the facts
Where to go next
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