Dial Red O (1955)

Bill Elliott ("Det. Flynn") works quite well in this quickly-paced, more cerebral, hour long detective mystery. He must investigate the murder of "Connie" (Helene Stanley) who was having an affair with "Roper" (Paul Picerni). The finger for the crime is initially pointed at her somewhat shell-shocked husband "Wyatt" (Keith Larsen) but we know the truth (we've known all along) and so now we get to follow as both "Flynn" and "Wyatt" try to fathom out the truth. At times the photography goes too obviously out of it's way not to show us anything of the violent themes here. The code? Sure, but also a distinct lack of imagination from director Daniel Ullman didn't help either. From a production perspective, there is nothing special about any of this - indeed, Stanley is pretty terrible - but the story has plenty of twists and turns before an ending that does this cheap and cheerful B-feature just enough justice to make it worth a gander.