disinterested_spectator A man is found with his face in a fireplace, his face burnt to a crisp. Since his hands are also in the fireplace, there are no fingerprints. If only the detective had realized he was in a movie. Then he would have known that whenever a character in a movie is supposedly dead, but either his corpse has never been found or is disfigured beyond recognition, then that character is not dead. Examples of movies with a missing corpse are "My Favorite Wife" (1940) and "Mr. Lucky" (1943); examples of disfigured corpses are "Laura" (1944) and "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984). By the time the detective realizes this, it is too late. We have already had to sit through a movie that is both dumb and boring.

mark.waltz The best film noir involves a sap of a man who is willing to give up his career and risk everything including his life just because of the femme fatale who may or may not be a killer, a crook or a tramp. Film historians explain that the vixens of "Double Indemnity", "Out of the Past" and "Detour" were able to destroy their men much like the vamps of the silent era through the promise of the best sex of their life. That is the case of "Murder is My Beat" where a detective gets all the evidence to arrest a blonde vixen for murder, follows her through the snowy wilderness, gets her on the train to take her back, and bam!, is all of a sudden under her spell and willing to risk everything because she claims that she has seen the supposed murder victim standing outside of the train on a station platform. A lie or her conscience playing tricks on her? That remains to be seen.A typical film noir narration moves the plot along and while this is definitely a cliché of these types of films, in this case, it works wonders. Paul Langton is both hero and narrator, telling his story as he tries to reason as to why he believed that the blonde and buxom cabaret singer Barbara Payton was innocent of the murder he has been collecting evidence on against her. Payton leaves little to the imagination in her tight sweater as Langton basically bursts in on her in the snow-covered cabin. He barely missed walking over the roof of it until he noticed a chimney sticking up out of nowhere. She looks pretty cozy there in spite of the fact that there's probably 10 feet of snow outside threatening to block her in for the winter.As directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, this is one of his lesser known classics (which includes film noir sleepers like "Detour" and "Ruthless"), and there is wonder as to why newer filmmakers have discovered his work to be artistically genius. What seems at first like a generic film noir as that era was winding down is actually a great find in itself, with tight editing, crisp dialog and characters you never know what side of moralistic laws they are on. That keeps you guessing all the way through and that is what great film noir is all about.

TAYLOR BOWIE This is no masterpiece but is a modestly entertaining crime movie...not "noir" by any stretch either but the performances from a good group of "B" players are not bad, and anyway you don't get too much chance to see Barbara Payton in movies. Just don't expect any competition for The Big Heat or The Maltese Falcon and you should have a good time!

TC-4 I have seen lots of Film-Noir movies but to call this one is a just rip-off. This is nothing more than a very low budget black and white movie. The storyline is predictable and sets are cheap. This was probably filmed in 2 days. It has none of that film-noir mystique. Don't waste your time on this one.