man and this be a hard dvd to come by . i could only find it on region 2 and a spanish import and and it be expensive . be it worth it . well and yes . not so much because it a masterpiece of film making and though direct by curt siodmak ( the credit on imdb . com read robert but the dvd credit list curt ) and or because it have a couple of familiar figure from other murder mystery elisha cook and jr. and and thomas gomez but because my decade long curiosity about the movie have finally be satisfy . essentially and a respect but self contain engineer ( alan curtis ) have be stand up by his estranged wife and find himself in a new york bar with two show ticket in his pocket . a woman with a strange hat be on the stool next to his and he politely invite her to join him at the musical review . she accept and a little gloomily . the mopey bartender give them both the eye a they leave . at the show and the tempestuous star notice that this lady in the audience be wear the same hat and erupts offstage with anger . the drummer in the band and cook and leer at the silent lady but get no response . curtis take the woman to her home and ask her name but she would not give it and and she doesn not want to know his . if she would be a longfellow devotee she would have say something about ship that pass in the night . okay and curtis go home to find his wife have be murder in his absence . the head police officer and gomez and turn him over to the da . his only alibi be that he be with a phantom lady whom no one else seem to remember not the bartender and not the latina star and not the cab driver ( al alp ) and not the drummer and since the lady herself have disappear and it impossible to dig her up . curtis be convict and sentence to die . but inspector gomez have think thing over and decide her probably innocent because nobody with a brain would make up such a stupid story . he join curtis love secretary and ella raines and in re investigate the case informally . they visit the supposed witness again . the ominous bartender be run over by a car and perhaps accidentally and so he out of the picture . the hot tempered latina have leave because the show close and she uncooperative and ignorant of the source of the hat anyway . elisha cook and jr. and be strangle by the real murderer but not before he be feature in a scene in which he pound the drum in an improvised jazz group . his sweaty face assume an expression which doesn not suggest intense focus but rather a monstrous and orgasmic insanity . his eyeball roll to the ceiling and his mouth gape and his hammering becomes frenzied . i laugh out loud . nobody performance be otherwise outstanding and but all be professional enough . thomas gomez be always reliable . best performance and though and be probably by franchot tone . he the real murderer and he fake his alibi . he reserve and artistic . even when he faint he decorous . i do not know how to put this precisely but tone seem to be think as well a simply act his part . alan curtis a the innocent engineer be near zero on the kelvin scale and belongs in a b picture . i do not know why it consider a classic . it really your basic murder mystery by cornell woolrich and not as good a some of his others . but siodmak direction be sensitive . a man get run over and his hat wind up in a gutter with water run around it . his use of shadow be quietly effective . glad i get it .