A gold locket around the neck of a little girl. So sweet, so demure, so unlikely to trigger a nightmare of death and deceit. The Locket is a chilling film noir suffused with the vivid postwar psychological mystery that made films such as Spellbound Bijou favorites. Laraine Day stars as a woman who was denied the locket in childhood and who now turns her charms on man after man as she plots jewel theft after jewel theft...and as theft ultimately leads to murder. The film's intricate use of flashbacks has earned it cult status. And icon-to-be Robert Mitchum takes an atypical role as a vulnerable artist destroyed by his love for the unstable, emotionally scarred beauty for whom nothing can replace the lost locket.

Setting something of a record for flashbacks within flashbacks, THE LOCKET recounts the mental disintegration of bride-to-be Laraine Day. As a child, Day was accused of stealing a locket at a fancy party. She has spent her life getting even for this false accusation by becoming a kleptomaniac and ruining the lives of those around her. She drives one man (Robert Mitchum) to suicide, and stands by as another man is executed for a murder which she has committed. Assuming her revenge on the world is complete when she becomes engaged to the son of the woman who'd accused her of thievery, Day is overtaken by the demons within her and collapses on the altar. THE LOCKET is difficult to follow at times, especially when seen in commercialized chunks on the Late Late Show.