Granted, William Irish (pen name of Cornell Woolrich) books have ridiculous plots and outlandish coincidences, but the screenplay was practically a comedy compared to the original novel. Gone was the sense of a real deadline, the suspense, the frustration of the main characters, the danger. I enjoyed Susan Hayward's performance and some of the dialog, but please, do yourself a favor if you're a noir fan, and read the book.
shareI haven't read the book, not knowing how close the screenplay is to it, but I couldn't help notice that the story features quite a lot of Sherlock Holmes references. For instance, when the body is discovered, the sailor gives a detailed interpretation of how it could've happened, then he tries to place himself in the mind of the murderer to guess (although Sherlock never guesses, he deduces...) where he went. Then, to top it, Susan Hayward pretends to the soda jerk that she has a bet with the sailor so as to make him talk without him getting suspicious. That particular trick is used in the Blue Carbuncle. I'd be curious to know if these elements are in the book, because they are so obviously references to Sherlock.
shareI would have liked some of Woolrich's descriptive passages narrated over the action in the film where that would have been possible. All those philosophic quotes from the characters rang a bit strange to me. I would rather have had heard Woolrich's description of the city spoken by a narrator to have taken the place of a lot these quotes.
Re "Gone was the sense of a real deadline." You're right. In his writing, Woolrich gives a regular reminder of the time ticking by. The clock time is quoted as each piece of the action takes place. The film should have used the same device.