Road House

A bizarre, subdued weepie-cum-thriller, centered around Lupino's sultry presence as a nightclub chanteuse who inspires such feelings of love and hate in her blood-brother employers (Widmark and Wilde) that they turn on each other with a vengeance. Aided by strong performances, Negulesco smooths over the strange shifts in plot and characterisation, manages somehow to lend credibility to the melodramatic proceedings, and delivers one of the great drunkard scenes en route. Mad, perhaps, but memorable too.