Jane, a housewife, is confronted during her daily chores by Dennis, her married lover with whom she has had a long affair. Dennis tells Jane that he has to break off their relationship. She threatens suicide, but when she picks up a shish kabob skewer, the two struggle and Dennis is stabbed in the chest and collapses. Jane hides the body in the house. Before she can leave, her brother-in-law arrives and tells her that he knows about the affair and that he has invited her husband, her lover, and his wife to her house that evening so that he can tell them about the affair.
Acting
Laraine Day's trembling descent into cornered-rat energy
Direction
Pichel squeezes claustrophobia from a suburban living room
Editing
Ruthless 69-minute runtime — no fat, all dread
Director
Irving Pichel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Hollywood's 'weepie' era, this was sold as exploitation but plays like feminist nightmare fuel about trapped 1950s housewives.
Irving Pichel was blacklisted two years later; this was his last film before the HUAC exile that killed his career.
US
