Review

Both Garfield and Turner had rough-and-tumble lives off-camera: Garfield spent his childhood in various Bronx gangs and Turner landed in Hollywood as a 16-year-old orphan. Perhaps it was the reflection of their real-life dramas that smolders in their definitive portrayals of the ultimate drifter and the unhappily married woman whose passions lead to betrayal and murder. James M. Cain's book inspired four films, but not even Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, in the most recent remake, were able to give it the gritty intensity captured in this classic film noir.