Deadline at Dawn (1946)
Directed by Harold Clurman
Starring Susan Hayward, Paul Lukas, and Bill Williams

After a woman he meets is murdered, a soon-to-ship-out sailor has until dawn to find the killer, aided by a weary dance hall girl.

Rating: 7/10

The first act of this story is quite good. A drunk sailor wakes up to find he has no memory of the last hour of his life and a wad of bills in his pocket. He has a hazy memory of the money belonging to a girl he got drunk with the night before, but when he goes to return it, he finds her dead. He enlists a dance hall girl to help him figure out what happened. He has to be on a bus to report for duty at six in the morning.

All of that stuff is enjoyable, but then they get a cab driver entangled in the mystery, and the quality dips. The character of the cab driver is actually interesting, and the performance from Paul Lukas is good, but he winds up feeling like a third wheel. He takes away from the chemistry the two leads have and muddles it all up.

I hated the conclusion. Thinking about it now, it sort of makes sense, but in the moment it felt absolutely wrong. But the filmmaking is good, and the acting is good, so it is well worth watching.