said that the dead woman was Helen. After figuring out that she is living under an assumed identity and that she has wealthy in-laws, he blackmails Helen into giving him a check for $500 and marrying him. She gets a gun, goes to Stephen's office, where he is living, and finds him dead on his bed but fires the gun at him. Bill comes to the office and helps Helen dispose of the body and conceal evidence of her relationship with Stephen. Bill and his mother have realized that Helen is in trouble and, because they love her regardless of her past, will do anything they can to protect her. Bill's mother dies of heart failure, but not before writing a letter that she gives to her maid, making her swear to give it to Helen only if police come for her. In the letter, Mrs. Harkness claims to have killed Stephen, which she could not have done. Three months later, when police find his body and the check Helen gave to him, they do come for her. Helen confesses to shooting him, but she is told that her bullet missed him and was found in his mattress, that a bullet of another caliber was found in his body, and that his girlfriend has confessed to shooting him. Bill and Helen embrace. Cast Credited Barbara Stanwyck as Helen Ferguson John Lund as Bill Harkness Jane Cowl as Mrs. Harkness Phyllis Thaxter as Patrice Harkness Lyle Bettger as Stephen Morley Henry O'Neill as Mr. Harkness Richard Denning as Hugh Harkness Carole Mathews as Blonde Harry Antrim as Ty Winthrop Catherine Craig as Rosalie Baker Esther Dale as Josie Milburn Stone as Plainclothesman Griff Barnett as Dr. Parker Mary Lawrence as Lucy Hunt Uncredited Georgia Backus as Nurse Virginia Brissac as Justice of the Peace's Wife Kathleen Freeman as Clara Larrimore Helen Mowery as Harriet Olsen Reception In his May 4, 1950 review of the film for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther generally compliments the principal cast's performances, but he pans both the structure and tone of the screenplay itself: The widely read entertainment trade paper Variety was far more upbeat in its review. After previewing the film in Hollywood on February 17, 1950two and a half months prior to the feature's national releasethe critic for Variety endorsed the film and drew special attention to the quality of Stanwyck's and Lund's