The screenplay by Ketti Frings, based on an unpublished short story by Marty Holland,[1] concerns a woman who pretends to fall in love with an assistant district attorney and uses him to escape conviction for the murder of her wealthy aunt.

Thelma Jordon shows up late one night in the office of the district attorney to report a series of attempted burglaries at her Aunt Vera's home.

Wendell Corey's real-life children Robin and Jonathan played non-speaking roles as the daughter and son of his character in the film.

[5] Variety praised the film, writing: "Thelma Jordon unfolds as an interesting, femme-slanted melodrama, told with a lot of restrained excitement.

Scripting from a story by Marty Holland is very forthright, up to the contrived conclusion, and even that is carried off successfully because of the sympathy developed for the misguided and misused character played by Wendell Corey".

The part is played (remarkably well) by Corey, whose haunted, hangdog persona as a perennial loser is echoed so perfectly by the deliberately slow, inexorable tempo of Siodmak's direction (not to mention George Barnes' superbly bleak lighting)".

[8] The New York Times gave a mixed review, stating: "Thelma Jordon is, for all of its production polish, adult dialogue, and intelligent acting, a strangely halting and sometimes confusing work".

The review criticized the slow pace of the film and the not-unexpected climax, but gave credit to Stanwyck for "handling a complex assignment professionally and with a minimum of forced histrionics".