Fake noir that completely misses the point. Set among the criminal underworld, yes, but inadvertently valorizes its deplorable characters by presenting them as noble heroes. The male lead, played by Robert Taylor as an aristocratic, genteel dandy, is also an unrepentant lawyer to the mob. Not only does his virtuous behaviour toward Cyd Charisse, the titular party girl, provoke our desire to identify with what are very simply the socially correct moral values of 50s America—but the narrative arc of his disability provokes our sympathy. The correlation this film makes between its social milieu and the admirable traits Taylor embodies misses the point of what film noir is intended to do. The best noir features characters who are trapped by their circumstances; who are in some way likeable, but who are driven to anti-social behaviour by the set of social institutions that confine them.
This film is going on my list of “Fake Noir.”