Currently working my way through the Bad Girls of Film Noir Vol.2, I find myself falling in love with the wonderful drawling southern belle accent of Cleo Moore - a much under-rated actress in my book.

Louisiana-born, she was once famous for her five-minute kiss on TV as a publicity stunt and for marrying and then dumping Governor Huey Long's son in the course of six weeks - claiming afterwards she would run for governor herself (gets my vote!).



Amongst her endless outstanding movies were Hunt The Man Down (1950) with Gig Young; Gambling House (1950) with Victor Mature; and the atmospheric On Dangerous Ground (1952) with Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan.

She then went on to to star in a series of seven 'Fate and Irony' Hugo Haas helmed B-movie features including Strange Fascination (1952) and the magnificent One Girl's Confession (1953) in which she plays a young woman faced with hardship and constantly beaten down by fate who carries out a robbery and hides the loot safely. She then serves her time in order to come out, retrieve the money and become rich - but will her plan work out?



The unusual Thy Neighbour's Wife (1954) is set in Moravia and is a tale of adultery and murder, whilst Bait (1954) is a more standard road-to-ruin movie in which Cleo leads poor Hugo Haas to his dinner date with destiny. The Other Woman (1955) is a wonderful bijou masterpiece in which Cleo plots revenge on her boss and this was followed by the legendary bad girl movie Women's Prison (1956) which also starred Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling and Audrey Totter - what more could you ask for?

After that, there was Hold Back Tomorrow (1956) with John Agar; Over-Exposed (1957) with Richard Crenna and the magnificent Hit and Run (1957) with Vince Edwards.
Then she suddenly gave up on acting and became a real estate baron instead. Sadly, she died at the relatively young age of forty-nine in 1973.