“We were middle class poor, the kind of people who can’t quite keep up with the Joneses and they die a little every day because they can’t.” From her opening lines, Jane Palmer (Lizabeth Scott) shows us her insecurity about wealth, her fear of the condescension of wealthier women. So, it comes as no surprise that when a satchel of $60,000 is mistakenly dropped in her car’s back seat one dark night that she wants to keep it. Her husband Alan (Arthur Kennedy), on the other hand, fears that it could lead them into criminal waters. The next day, shady character Danny Fuller (Dan Duryea) comes around looking for his loot, which is a payoff from a blackmail victim, but Jane isn’t ready to give it up so she lures Danny into a scheme that will ultimately lead to multiple murders. Don DeFore plays Alan’s old Air Force buddy Don Blake who comes calling at a strangely opportune moment, and Kristine Miller (and her flowing hair) plays Alan’s sister and next-door neighbor Kathy, who’s always been suspicious of Jane because Jane’s first husband died under mysterious circumstances. So often playing a supporting character, Scott dominates every scene, her royal smile concealing a savage lust for money, at one point sleeping with the grimy Danny (“I don’t think I’d like you with a heart”) rather than risk losing her windfall. While a majority of scenes seem to take place inside the Palmers’ contemporary, meticulous apartment at the Chateau Michel, the film becomes visually dark anytime the action moves outside, especially since most available copies are poor-quality.