Pushover
Though she had already played bit roles in a brace of RKO Radio films, Kim Novak was officially "introduced" in this, her first starring feature for Columbia. Novak is cast as Lona McLane, the gorgeous but hard-boiled moll of gangster Harry Wheeler (Paul Richards). Assigned to track down the $210,000 stolen by Wheeler in a bank robbery, superficially honest police detective Paul Sheridan (Fred MacMurray) puts Lona under round-the-clock surveillance. Succumbing to her charms, Paul falls in love with Lola, who tries to persuade him to bump off Wheeler so that she and Paul can abscond with the two grand. Initially resisting this notion, the half-bewitched Sheridan finally agrees, but after killing Wheeler he is forced to murder his own partner, detective Paddy Dolan (William Nourse), to cover his tracks. Descending even further into corruption thanks to the scheming Lola, Paul ends up being pursued by his longtime friend and fellow officer Rick McAllister (Phil Carey), and also manages to involve Rick's innocent girl friend Ann (Dorothy Malone) in the sordid intrigue. -- Hal Erickson