Dana Andrews is "Eric Stanton", broke, bumming his way around the country, charming, fibbing and embellishing his way to food and lodgings where he can. He is chucked off a Greyhound bus (by a driver who looked remarkably like Ward Bond) in a sleepy coastal town, where he heads to a local diner to plan how best to continue his journey on to San Francisco. His plans change suddenly, however, when he meets the rather venal waitress "Stella" (Linda Darnell) even though she is pretty lukewarm to his subtleties. This little town seems to attract charlatans as also he encounters "Madley" (John Carradine) and the pair hatch a plan to procure a considerable sum of money from a couple of wealthy young sisters, the younger of whom "June" (Alice Faye) succumbs to his strategy and marries him. All looks set fair until "Stella" (remember her?) turns up - dead - and the other sister "Clara" (Anne Revere) who has a bit of history when it comes to being fleeced by con-artists is now bent on ensuring that "Eric" is a focus for the murder investigation. The plot is just a touch convoluted; the murder investigation almost irrelevant, but Otto Preminger builds the tension efficiently as the cocky young man finds these locals he assumed were easy prey turn out to be somewhat more canny - and vindictive. I wasn't hugely impressed with the ending, but the performances - especially from Andrews and Revere are strong with some decent dialogue and romance kept to a minimum.