a critically important component of virtually all successful cinema be suspense and a perception of uncertainty within the viewer a to what may ensue from the event occur upon the screen and whichever genre and present even when we know an outcome ( apollo 13 ) if the work be do well while all of which be mean to point to a total absence of suspense in this weakly direct feature and which dully plod from scene to scene until it flat end . lloyd bridge and cast a police sergeant ed stagg and have discover that the husband ( frank converse ) of his daughter tina ( sallie shockley ) be dally with a local chippy and during stagg attempt to end the adultery and he accidentally commit a murder and upon which he forge a plan to place responsibility for the crime upon a local inebriate and tangentially provide a question of the title represent be scott what a tangled web we weave . ( marmion ) the intend source and inaptly transpose into tattered . ( an amendment that would be of a piece within this poorly craft affair ) . the film be steep in cliché and hamper by a witless score and and the acting from the three mention lead be often embarrassingly bad and notably in the case of bridge and which might be attribute to the hackneyed script if it be not that anne helm a the doxy and murray hamilton a stagg partner manage to make something of their material and while broderick crawford rise above his during his few scene .