Verna XXX

The quality is there in this film, and from moment to moment it is certainly gripping.Van Heflin and Barbara Stanwyck deliver polished and professional performances, and Lizabeth Scott is beautiful and sympathique in her "tarnished ingenue" role. Kirk Douglas is very interesting to watch in this early role. All the expressions and mannerisms are there but he is not cast to type (or what became his type). If I only saw part of the film I would give it higher marks than my final rating. That is because, as it goes on, the story starts to get bogged down, and the scenes become poorly motivated, wordy, and melodramatic. The viewer is looking for the end to be in sight for some time, but no, they continue to try and milk it for more drama. What a pity! I'll keep the ranking to a 3/5 as a sympathy vote for the actors, and the director, but a raspberry for the screenplay.