Despite the title, this film is not about a crime wave. That's just a catchy title to start you wondering. It is about a reformed ex-convict, well played by Gene Nelson, being pressured by some escaped cons to assist them, thus endangering his parole and threatening his wife, ably portrayed by Phyllis Kirk. The film is dominated by the massive six foot five noir star, Sterling Hayden, as a tough homicide cop who chews toothpicks non-stop because his doctors won't let him smoke, and who says things like: 'You're head's full of mush.' It's always good to see Sterling Hayden again, the more times he turns up the better; he's solid, he's menacing, and what is more, he's the real thing. You know he'd knock you down and then pick you up again, and besides, he's compulsively watchable. In his eyes there is always that half-mad flicker, and that ain't acting. The film is directed with superb applomb by the highly professional Andre de Toth, lucky spouse of the delicious Veronica Lake, and he never wasted a frame. There are numerous fine touches: Sterling Hayden picks up a murdered cop's hat and puts it in the ambulance beside his corpse, but he does this as as afterthought without calling attention to the gesture. In one scene, a crowd of extras stand on the far side of the street watching a police raid. Toth allows them merely to be glimpsed. Toth does not signal and linger, he moves on, he has the confidence and control not to worry. There is lots of Los Angeles as it was in 1952 in this film (released only in 1954). All those fifties people, all those fifties cars, all those fifties shops. Where have they all gone? This picture has action all the way, Gene Nelson and Phyllis Kirk do not sleep in twin beds, things are brutal and quick, but there is no excess of violence. The film is primarily a psychological tension drama, as all true noir must be. Noir is about doubt, insecurity, pressure, and threats all around you, with betrayal and trust as the key issues. Oh yes, and there's love too, which generally takes place between the bullets rather than between the sheets. (No one in a noir film has time to go to bed without being interrupted by a threatening phone call or someone banging on the door. You grab a kiss as you make a run for it.)