Soon Johnny and Lorna begin a secret affair. Lorna tells Johnny she's pregnant with his child, but he's not sure if the father is him or her husband. Despite his doubts, Lorna tells him she loves him and talks him into killing her husband -- as he makes it look like a drowning accident. When Giuseppe's mother and sister arrive from Italy for the funeral, they suspect Lorna because she's acting so nervous and she faked being pregnant. Johnny becomes guilt-stricken and wants to go to the police when Lorna tells him her pregnancy was a lie. When Lorna can't stop him, she poisons the fighter and makes it look like a suicide.

The most interesting aspect, was the real troubled life of Barbara Payton. The once promising Hollywood starlet (Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye /Murder is my Beat) was the trophy sexual object of a fistfight between actors Franchot Tone and Tom Neal. As a result, Tone ended up in the hospital. According to her autobiography Tone married her soon after, but divorced her seven weeks later accusing her of adultery with Neal. The scandal put a damper on Payton's career. Payton eventually ended up as a call girl and was arrested for prostitution, drunkenness, and passing bad checks. Payton told her story in a sensational autobiography titled "I Am Not Ashamed."

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 10th, 1953

Reviews     DVD Reviews

DVD Review: VCI Entertainment (Hammer Film Noir Vol. 3) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
	Also available in VCI's Hammer Film Noir Collector's Set, Vol. 1-3 which includes Bad Blonde (1953) Man Bait (1952) A Stolen Face (1952) - Blackout (1954) Gambler and the Lady (1952) - Heat Wave (1954) but BEWARE the packaging is circumspect - a large case with three discs stacked immediately on top of one another. It is advisable, even paying a slight amount more to buy the three Double Features individually.
Distribution	VCI Entertainment Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:19:45
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5:42 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: VCI Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Bios for Reginald Le Borg and Barbara Payton • Trailers for Blonde Ice, Bad Blonde, Man Bait • Short Commentaries about Hammer Noir and the films by Richard M. Roberts DVD Release Date: August 28, 2006 Keepcase Chapters 12

DVD Menus

Screen Captures

Recommended Reading in Film Noir (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)

The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir by Foster Hirsch	Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City by Nicholas Christopher	Shades of Noir: A Reader by Joan Copjec	The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir by Eddie Muller	The Little Black and White Book of Film Noir: Quotations from Films of the 40's and 50's by Peg Thompson, Saeko Usukawa	Film Noir by Alain Silver	Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940-1959 by Michael F. Keaney	Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir by Foster Hirsch

Man Bait (1952) - Look Out…Diana Dors in the title role makes the title redundant! While working in a bookstore, our double-barreled femme fatale catches a man stealing a rare book. Report him to the police? Not on your life! She goes with him on a date…one that leads to blackmail!.

***

Well over a dozen co-productions were made by Hammer and Exclusive using American stars, the occasional American director, and frequently involving American writers, most notably Richard Landau. The first was The Last Page (retitled Man Bait), Terence Fisher was the director (his first work for Hammer-Exclusive); Frederick Knott, better known as the author of Dial M for Murder did the screenplay from a stage play by James Hadley Chase. All told, far more striking talents were at work than on any picture, and commercially it did the trick.

George Brent, nearing the end of his career, portrays a London bookshop manager blackmailed by Diana Dors as his busty young assistant in cahoots with her boyfriend (Peter Reynolds). Another American star, Marguerite Chapman, provided the conventional love interest for a happy ending.

Posters

Theatrical Release: 16 April 1954 (USA)

Reviews    More Reviews  DVD Reviews

DVD Review: VCI Entertainment (Hammer Film Noir Vol. 3) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
	Also available in VCI's Hammer Film Noir Collector's Set, Vol. 1-3 which includes Bad Blonde (1953) Man Bait (1952) A Stolen Face (1952) - Blackout (1954) Gambler and the Lady (1952) - Heat Wave (1954) but BEWARE the packaging is circumspect - a large case with three discs stacked immediately on top of one another. It is advisable, even paying a slight amount more to buy the three Double Features individually.
Distribution	VCI Entertainment Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:17:45
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5:42 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: VCI Entertainment Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Bio for Terence Fisher and Diana Dors • Trailers for Blonde Ice, Bad Blonde, Man Bait • Short Commentaries about Hammer Noir and the films by Richard M. Roberts DVD Release Date: August 28, 2006 Keepcase Chapters 12

DVD Menus