Good screen acting representing bad stage acting

Well the stage acting was awful - as was presumably the norm at the time. Some of the morality of the story is dubious - the cop out ending where Tony (Ronald Coleman) is excused from facing the consequences of his actions is dubious, as is the use of the waitress as a proxy to be murdered in place of Brita (Signe Hasso), his co-star on stage and one-time wife.

Putting that aside it's a good story well filmed (as you'd expect from Cukor) that moves along nicely. Four stars only by not judging it by today's standards - otherwise it would be 2 at best.