This film provided Sirk""s clear commentary and critique of the underlying hollowness and shallowness of American society in the placid 1950s, and misfit lives stunted and corrupted by mental anguish, alcoholism, sexual frustration, and corruptible materialistic wealth.In Warren""s hospital room, Adam has a preliminary interview with his client - who is accompanied at bedside by his selfish, coarse mistress Beryl." To compensate her, he asked to borrow a fivre coin from his Physician, although Frollo snidely remarked: "She""s a gypsy, sire.[Note: the gift of a fedora was an acknowledgement by writer Kasdan of the film""s noirish roots in 1940s crime dramas.