A man takes over the identity of a dead man while on the lam from a crime he didn't commit.
Acting
John Beal's sweaty, trapped-rat desperation carries every frame.
Direction
Lederman crams a feature's worth of dread into 67 tight minutes.
Director
D. Ross Lederman
John Beal
Milton Higby
Trudy Marshall
Marge Andrews
Jimmy Lloyd
Larry Summers
Helen Mowery
Sally Guthrie
Wilton Graff
Albert Loring
Barbara Read
Martha Higby (as Barbara Reed)
Charles Trowbridge
John Ballin
Harry Hayden
Custer Bidwell
William Newell
Smiley
Selmer Jackson
Edward Clemmons
Robert B. Williams
Officer Johnson
Stanley Blystone
Patrolman - Accident Scene (uncredited)
Claire Carleton
Receptionist (uncredited)
Kernan Cripps
Policeman - Coroner's Office (uncredited)
Eddie Dunn
Detective Lt. Dillon (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
D. Ross Lederman directed 55 features in the 1940s—this B-noir was typical of Columbia's 'quota quickies' cranked out to fill double bills.
The 'wrong man' trope peaked post-war; audiences exhausted by global chaos found perverse comfort in individual paranoia they could survive in 67 minutes.
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