The master of suspense created a compelling spy mission interwoven with a romantic love story.The dark, intricate film is thematically concerned with both political (and sexual) betrayal and issues of trust, friendship, and duty embodied in the characters"" relationships.All night, I walk the city, watching the people go by.I try to sing a little ditty, but all that comes out is a sigh.The street looks very frightening, the rain begins and then comes lightning.It seems love""s gone to pot, I""d rather have the blues than what I""ve got...In a snide, sneering mood, the driver, Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) [with a deliberately forceful, pounding, hard phallic name] reveals that he is returning to Los Angeles.After the two ordered whiskeys, the "Boss" told Malloy that his lost girlfriend no longer worked there as a dancer, and then warned that he didn""t want trouble: ("I got a reputation for no trouble").In a sideplot, Grissom""s moll Alicia Hunt (Jerry Hall) was two-timing her boss with the dapper dandy, Jack.Although most of the film was slow-building and subtle in its suspense in the catatonic mind of the fragile and doe-eyed heroine, there were three scenes with sudden shocks: (1) the razor slashing of the Landlord, (2) the two rape hallucinations, and (3) the jump-scare of the wardrobe-closet mirror.