It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The first must-see film of the year.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

A unfaithful wife plots with her lover to kill her husband, but the lover is accidentally killed instead. The husband stays in hiding, and lets his wife be charged with conspiracy.In the 1940s, it was still uncommon for brand name products to be seen in movies, but this was a notable exception. A Bekins moving van is prominent in several scenes. The movie trade paper Harrison's Reports typically called attention to cases in which such products appeared on screen, and always took a stand against that practice. It is interesting to consider Bekins within this context, as you not find it strange for vehicles with signage to go by in the real world.One thing that really stands out today (2017) is the Chinese shopkeeper. While not outright offensive or insulting, it is interesting the way a person from the Chinese community was portrayed. Some credit ought to be given on casting: Anna May Wong was actually Chinese, and Philip Ahn was Korean, still better than casting a Caucasian with a mustache.

the whole film suffered a sudden deterioration and death, and at the same time when his wife was escorted into the cops' room, the whole dialog became so stupid that had become unbearably ridiculous. 'on what charge?" asked by Williams was the exact groundless accusation. the screenplay simply became stupider and stupider. grand jury? give me a break. when Williams arrived larkspur, Idaho, the news reporting his death with his photos were on every newspapers, yet nobody seemed to recognize him, there were so many folks in that town holding newspapers yet no one noticed a stranger suddenly showed, this highly unlikely scenario only served the purpose for Williams to hook up with the wonderful widow who ran a gas station and car repair shop. before Williams back to s.f., the police already took his murdering wife into custody, but once he showed up, then the whole screenplay just turned into a stupid farce. what a waste of a good film that had the potential to be great, but then the stupidity simply turned beyond salvage.

Very good acting and story line make for a suspenseful drama. A very successful San Francisco business man Walter Williams(Brian Donlevy)is on his way to wrap up some important business in Denver and his devious wife Irene(Helen Walker)backs out of the trip at the last minute; but wants her husband to pickup her cousin(Tony Barrett), who is actually her lover. The plan of rigging the car to crash backfires and Mr. Williams is the survivor, not the victim of the wreck. Helen is stunned, but plays the dutiful widow as Walter decides to remain in hiding with the chance to begin a lower profile life. Police Lt. Tom Quincy(Charles Coburn)believes he can locate the supposedly dead Williams as a surprised Irene is jailed and charged with conspiracy to murder. This is arguably film-noir. Kudos to director Arthur Lubin and Donlevy for one of his best roles. Also in the cast: Ella Rains, Art Baker, Anna May Wong and Robert Warwick.

I was on a noir kick recently and Impact was one of the films that came up as a recommendation that I hadn't already seen. The plot offers a tough promise of revenge, with a man set up by his wife to be killed by her lover – only for the lover to be killed and the original target to go into hiding while his wife faces suspicion from the police. The plot suggests that there will be a dark edge to the film and a story that sees revenge and justice coming as a result of the attempted murder. In reality though what we get is a dramatic opening quarter, which culminates in the death of the lover, but afterwards the film becomes about Williams settling into a new life and a potential romance for an hour until suddenly someone (presumably a writer) reminds him of the actual plot and he goes back to San Francisco just in time to trigger a courtroom finale and race against time to get to the bottom of it all.This approach wastes the potential in the plot because the darker thriller aspect is crammed into the final 30 minutes or so, even if the opening section leading up to the murder is pretty dramatic and effective. Outside of these sections though we have plenty of padding without any real impact or point; I know that the new life is the narrative trigger to the final confrontation but mostly it doesn't have a flow to it and it goes on far too long for what it is. As a result my interest had waned by the time we got back into the main plot and the courtroom action seemed a little muted, rushed and lacking in real urgency or drama. It is a real shame because the plot summary offered so much more and i'm not sure why it ignored its own strengths for so much of the film.The cast are rather stiff and so-so, although this may be in part due to the material. Donlevy does some good work but mostly he isn't allowed to feel much – Raines is cute next to him but seems far too young to be in that role. Coburn is only ever calling it in and his character lacks, well, character. Walker is, in her deeds, a cold, manipulative and disloyal woman but yet she has no edge to her at all and she is pretty dull. This is a film where none of the cast really stood out or managed to rise above the material.Overall Impact is a missed goal. It has potential but it misses it by being melodramatic, overlong and really losing its focus in regards the plot around murder and betrayal. Could have been something but wasn't.