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The seeds of noir are here. There is a "femme fatale" - sort of - her involvement triggers the action, but she herself is basically blameless. Also, it's a great performance by Edward G. Robinson - one that (with Double Indemnity, a far superior picture) spawned a career rebirth for him in noir. Dan Durya, is, as always, wonderfully smarmy in the same role he played so wonderfully throughout the 40s, Fritz Lang does a good job directing, with a stunning single shot ending that showed his technical mastery.
The problem is the story - and particularly, the ending, which is a huge copout. I won't spoil it here, but its clear from it we're not really in the noir era just yet. Robinson isn't really guilty of anything, so this has more of a Hitchcock tone than that of a noir, but Lang isn't Hitch and he does not lend it nearly enough suspense to justify the weak script.
The problem is the story - and particularly, the ending, which is a huge copout. I won't spoil it here, but its clear from it we're not really in the noir era just yet. Robinson isn't really guilty of anything, so this has more of a Hitchcock tone than that of a noir, but Lang isn't Hitch and he does not lend it nearly enough suspense to justify the weak script.