A 1940's style soap-opera directed by the acclaimed Joseph Mankiewicz. Visually, it's crisp and beautifully photographed, as one would expect from such as Mankiewicz. The story, of course, is pure shmaltz and hackneyed melodrama. Kirk Douglas really isn't the focus of this film; he's relegated to a bit position and, while I think he's a good actor, his part here could have probably been played by any good-looking pipe smoker. The main actresses are Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, and Ann Sothern. The only reason I sought this film out was because I was interested in seeing Darnell act, as I had just finished reading a biography on her. She's absolutely gorgeous, and doesn't come across any worse than anyone else in the film. Whatever talent she may have had never really materialized in anything memorable, sad to say. She became an alcoholic and spent the latter part of her life as a bitter, unfulfilled woman. In 1965, she died heroically in a fire trying to save others. Ultimately, she was buried in a rural cemetery in the town of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, about a half hour below Philadelphia in the lovely and historic Brandywine Valley.