UCLA Festival of Preservation Tour 2020
Screening Dates
  • March 12, 2020 8:45

When a killer dreams of millions … and a girl to spend them on!” Lloyd Bridges is violence-prone master counterfeiter and prison escapee Tris Stewart in this seedy, stylish film noir set in L.A. and made for Poverty Row studio Eagle-Lion. Tris’s bogus bills are so perfect the U.S. Treasury Department seeks his help. The lively plot is full of twists and turns, double-crosses, and unexpected reversals. Barbara Payton — an ill-fated actress whose own short life took tragic noir turns — plays blonde bombshell and nightclub cigarette girl Meg Dixon, Tris’s lover. The electrifying climax is set in an underground trolley-car barn. The film has been beautifully restored from a private collector’s print. Director Richard Fleischer moved on from B‑movies to major motion pictures such as The Vikings, Doctor Doolittle, and Fantastic Voyage.

Acknowledgments

Restoration funded by the Film Noir Foundation.