Silly, Disappointing Movie

easypz ~ Also the humour in many scenes (like when Cathcart [Webb] is telling Stauffer [Bendix] what to say to Galt on the phone: he tells him to say he needs two hundred dollars to leave town, and Stauffer says "I need two large to take a powder." Cut to Cathcart's priceless reaction)."

Uh, easypz, you severely misquote. He says "I need two yards powder money" to be precise.

Two large is two thousand.

The "shove Stauffer out the window bit" was a little clumsy and very unlikely as was the desperate search of all the city's cleaners for the white suit. But, other parts are done very well. I particularly liked Stauffer's hit on Jardine and then giving Brad the ether, all with a violent struggle, all completely without dialogue, quietly in the dark, with Ellington's version of his own Mood Indigo playing softly and dreamily in the background on the radio, the curtains in the window by the fire escape swaying gently in the night breeze. I thought that was rather chilling and most effective.

A lot of the dialogue was very good! I thought they really pulled out all the stops in the hard boiled banter department. Definitely grandstanding and playing the hard boiled caricature over the top but in a very entertaining way, I'd say. Not very realistic but nicely stylized.

It's not a great script, but I find the overall effect to be hugely enjoyable. This is a favorite movie of mine. I take the campiness in stride and enjoy the good parts I happen to like about it.

The main plot hole that nobody's mentioned is that the baddies are relying on Jardine's body being found in Galt's apartment in order to frame him but he's allowed ample opportunity to remove it (rather than hide it under the bed...). Why didn't Stauffer put a call into the cops after he left the apartment to report that he'd heard a big fight going on?