is a 1951 melodrama suspense film directed by Tay Garnett, written by Mel Dinelli and Tom Lewis, based on a story by Larry Marcus.

Ellen (Loretta Young) narrates the tale of "the most terrifying day of my life", how she was taking care of her bedridden husband George Z. Jones (Barry Sullivan) when he suddenly dropped dead.

Despite this, Ellen still loves her husband, and when he begins suffering heart problems, she tirelessly cares for him with the help of Ranney, who periodically visits in his capacity as George's personal physician.

After tidying up her disheveled appearance in preparation for visiting the post office, Ellen then notices the gun still in George's hand and decides to remove and hide it.

When Ranney arrives to check on George's condition, he calms Ellen and enters the bedroom where he takes stock of his dead friend, the bullet hole in the floor, and the gun in the dresser.

Director Tay Garnett thoroughly prepared both cast and crew and the film was shot in 14 days, a rather tight schedule for the era (Young reportedly used the same pre-production technique for her TV series a few years later).

Margalo Gillmore's successful acting career on Broadway stretched back to the late teens and Georgia Backus (the kindly neighbor gardening next door) had a small role in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane ten years before.

Former child star Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer (of Hal Roach's Our Gang comedy shorts) has a cameo appearance as a man repairing a hot rod car.

Although Crowther criticized the casting of "newcomer" Bruce Cowling as Ranney, calling his performance "wooden", he had only praise for Young, writing "she does splendidly as the desperate housewife, avoiding all the pitfalls, even in her hysterical breakdown at the end.

It pulls off the old Hitchcock trick of giving commonplace people, events and settings a sinister meaning, and it develops its simple, one-track idea with frightening logic."

Time's review also noted the strong supporting performances of Margalo Gillmore and Irving Bacon along with the film's "quiet, sunny atmosphere of a pleasant residential street" in Los Angeles.

Critic Craig Butler also cites the performances of Gillmore and Bacon, along with describing the cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg and score by André Previn as "huge pluses.

"An unusual entry into the film noir school of paranoia" which "trades the dark alleys and long shadows of urban menace for the sunny, tree-lined streets of middle-class domesticity" whilst noting, "Young's deadened narration adds an eerie mood of doom to the suburban setting.