Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott and Judith Anderson.

The film opens with Heflin driving down the road at night in a 1942 DeSoto Custom Convertible, with a hitchiking sailor napping in the passenger seat. As Heflin reaches his hometown, he turns around to look at the town's "Welcome to Iverstown" sign. Pausing too long gawking at the sign, he crashes the extremely rare DeSoto (one of 489)into a power pole, causing a goodly amount of front-end damage. The dozing sailor awakens and wisely exits the car, preferring to walk the rest of the way.

Arriving downtown, the DeSoto limps into an all-night garage with its unique-to-the-year hidden headlights (called "'Airfoil'...Out of Sight Except at Night!") looking as though they'd been in a drunken brawl. He leaves the car for repairs, and we don't see it again till he and Ms. Scott are leaving the factory town (after much mayhem, natch) at the end of the flic.

It's a great film (Douglas's first), and murderous Ms. Stanwyck is truly twisted as the little rich girl all grown up, gone from bad to mad.