Screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz recycles several themes and techniques from his script for Citizen Kane in this oddball melodrama about a singer (Maureen O'Hara) who confesses to the killing of her double-dealing protegee (Gloria Grahame). But Kane II it isn't; the the flashbacks here--as Melvyn Douglas leads the inquiry--snarl up into a turgid mess. Nicholas Ray directed it, though his touch is apparent only in the handling of the unstable Grahame character; otherwise, it's probably his stodgiest, driest piece of work. (Mankiewicz's brother Joseph later turned a similar story into All About Eve.)

Excerpt from Dave Kehr's review from the Chicago Reader located HERE

Something of an RKO chore for Ray, to be sure. But a nicely structured script by Herman J Mankiewicz (from a novel by Vicki Baum) - repeating the investigative flashback structure of Citizen Kane as it examines the events leading up to the death of ex-singer O'Hara's devious and ungrateful protégée (beautifully incarnated by Grahame) - is well served by the civilised direction, which not only turns the Vicki Baum melodrama into a noir-ish mystery, but also stresses, as so often in Ray, the importance of interior space and the way it reflects/influences action. Entertaining, and less routine than it sounds.

Excerpt from TimeOut Film Guide located HERE