A LIFE AT STAKE (1955)

Young architect Edward Shaw (Keith Andes) lives alone in a shabby boarding house room; he sits shirtless, staring into space, immobilized by a recent financial failure and owing some $30,000 to various creditors. Out of the blue, a lawyer arrives to make him an offer: Doris Hillman (Angela Lansbury) wants to hire him as a business partner (with money provided by her rich husband Gus) to build houses on property she will acquire. When Edward goes to meet her at her home, the maid tells him that she is out by the pool and warns him that she occasionally swims naked; as it happens, she's wearing a swimsuit, but is also acting a bit flirtatiously and perhaps sipping cocktails. Later, when they meet at an apartment where is Doris is catsitting (!), she tells him her husband wants Edward to take out a large life insurance policy since he will be the "key man" in their business. This angers him at first, but later when she comes to his place, he agrees to the situation and they spend some time making out. When Edward meets Doris' younger sister Madge, he discovers something disconcerting in Doris's past: she was previously married to a business partner of Gus’s who died in a car accident—and who had a big life insurance policy that paid out to Gus. Later, the brakes on Edward's car go out and he barely escapes injury. Is Edward the sucker in a murder plot, or is he just paranoid?

This B-film noir is a DOUBLE INDEMNITY knock-off (the seduction, the stolen kisses, the life insurance, the innocent female relative) but that shouldn't be counted against it. It's predictable in the way that many noirs are, though there are some fun twists and turns. Andes (CLASH BY NIGHT) whom I like, is not the greatest actor but he fills the role of the befuddled patsy well enough, and he's always easy on the eyes. It's fun to see Lansbury as a sexy femme fatale. Douglas Dumbrille is serviceable if not much more as the husband, and Claudia Barrett is vanilla-bland as the sweet kid Marge. Jane Darwell has a small role as the boarding house keeper. At one point in the middle of the movie, we learn that Doris and Gus have a mountain cabin getaway with a door that opens up directly onto the edge of a cliff (Chekhov's cliff, if you will) which we know will come into play at the climax, which it does in a satisfying way. Not bad. Also known as KEY MAN which is a way better title than A LIFE AT STAKE. [Amazon Prime]