Direction
Boetticher's debut—tight, hungry, already iconic.
Acting
Macready's whispery menace steals every frame.
Director
Budd Boetticher
Jim Bannon
Joe Keats
Janis Carter
Alice Hill
George Macready
Harry Wharton
Jean Stevens
Tex Tuttle
Joseph Crehan
Willard Apple
Walter Baldwin
Town Sheriff (uncredited)
Trevor Bardette
Tom Pierson (uncredited)
Al Bridge
Deputy Sheriff Ben (uncredited)
Cliff Clark
Police Inspector Davis (uncredited)
Edmund Cobb
Police Detective Cahan (uncredited)
Sam Flint
Judge (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Budd Boetticher was 28 and had never directed before—studio execs gave him 10 days and $50,000.
The 'phantom killer' premise directly rips off 1939's 'The Phantom Strikes,' but Boetticher's kinetic camera makes it feel fresh.
US
