Time to discuss another great Jack Kelly flick--1955's Double Jeopardy.
This neat little noir could also be titled "Double Cross", because that's what some of the characters do to each other, including slick used car salesman "Jeff Calder" (JK) and his scheming girlfriend "Marge Baggott" (Gale Robbins), who, in their first scene, are unaware they're being observed by Marge's drunken husband, "Sam" (Robert Armstrong).
Sam is blackmailing a former business partner. After Marge shows Calder some of the money, he decides he wants a piece of the action:
Marge convinces Sam to squeeze more money out of his victim so (unbeknownst to Sam) she and Jeff can run off to Mexico. But, unbeknownst to Marge, Jeff actually has other plans. He trails Sam to the blackmail site:
Sam's blackmail gravy train suddenly derails and he ends up empty-handed. Jeff doesn't know this and tries to shake Sam down:
Things go downhill--literally--from there:
Soon, Calder is visited by the blackmail victim's attorney (Rod Cameron), who questions him about Sam and Marge while his unhappy boss "Happy Harry" (Dick Elliott) looks on:
As the noose tightens around Calder and Marge, he assures her that everything will be okay:
But, maybe not for her, it turns out:
I won't give away the ending, but I will say that JK is excellent as the double-crossing Calder in Double Jeopardy.
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