"This movie from Hollywood's poverty row, shot in six days, filled with technical errors and ham-handed narrative, starring a man who can only pout and a woman who can only sneer, should have faded from sight soon after it was released in 1945. And yet it lives on, haunting and creepy, an embodiment of the guilty soul of film noir. No one who has seen it has easily forgotten it."

"Say who do you think you're talking to - a hick? Listen Mister, I been around, and I know a wrong guy when I see one. What'd you do, kiss him with a wrench?"

"Charles Haskell Jr.: I was tussling with the most dangerous animal in the world, a woman."

"I'd hate to see a fellow as young as you wind up sniffin' that perfume Arizona hands out free to murderers!"

"Ann Savage — Vera"

"[voiceover] It wasn't much of a club really. You know the kind. A joint where you could have a sandwich and a few drinks and run interference for your girl on the dance floor."

"Martha Vickers — Susan Duane"

"[as narrator] As I drove off, it was still raining and the drops streaked down the windshield like tears."

"Edmund MacDonald — Charles Haskell, Jr."

"Zachary Scott — Horace Vendig"

"Claudia Drake — Sue Harvey"

"Yes. Fate, or some mysterious force, can put the finger on you or me for no good reason at all."

"[as narrator] What kind of dames thumb rides? Sunday School teachers?"

"That's life. Whichever way you turn, Fate sticks out a foot to trip you."

"Sally Eilers — Virginia Cartwright"

"Regis Toomey — Dr. Martin Vincent"

"Warren William — Brett Curtis"

"Money. You know what that is, the stuff you never have enough of. Little green things with George Washington's picture that men slave for, commit crimes for, die for. It's the stuff that has caused more trouble in the world than anything else we ever invented, simply because there's too little of it."

"So when this drunk handed me a ten spot after a request, I couldn't get very excited. What was it I asked myself? A piece of paper crawling with germs. Couldn't buy anything I wanted."

"I'm Paul Cartwright, my father was Judge Albert Cartwright, once lieutenant governor of the state, he was killed two years ago in a mysterious accident. We were not only father and son, but friends. The shock of his violent death still haunts my mind, my nights are troubled by strange dreams."

"Jimmy Lydon — Paul Cartwright"

"[as narrator] Until then I had done things my way, but from then on something stepped in and shunted me off to a different destination than the one I'd picked for myself."

"Tim Ryan — the Nevada Diner Proprietor"

"Why must you destroy everyone who helps you?"

"Edith Barrett — Mrs. Burnside"