When it comes to smaller noirs, I prefer a playful balance between serious and silly, between dark and light. And I think Phantom Lady finds that balance. It's got the grim tones and brooding atmospheres and life-or-death stakes that you'd hope to find, while also being strange and over-the-top enough (erotic drumming, sculptured heads, evil hands) that I'm still having a fun time.
Where the movie truly started cooking for me, though, was through the changing of protagonists. For the opening twenty minutes or so, we think this is Scott's story. But once he gets sentenced early on, we discover that the true lead is actually Kansas, and we're now going to follow her as she attempts to rescue him. It's a refreshing change of pace because, one, Ella Raines is a much better actor than Alan Curtis, and two, it inverts the femme fatale trope, and allows a woman to play detective (and an unambiguous noir hero) for once.
Even with a slight and largely implausible story, I enjoyed this somewhat subversive little mystery.
Grade: A-
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