A fascinating entry in the film noir sweepstakes, The File on Thelma Jordan has all the characteristics associated with the genre: a treacherous femme fatale whose wiles draw a strong dupe into her web; a plot filled with enough twists and turns to make one's head spin; tragic flaws for the lead characters; a heavy, erotic undercurrent; moody black-and-white photography with impeccable set-ups; and an almost palpable tension running throughout. Where Jordan differs is in its seductive female lead. Thelma may be no good, but it's almost as if she's been forced into the life she leads, and unlike the usual cold-blooded noir "heroine," there's a part of her that wants to do good. She's almost a split personality, torn between a "light" side (represented by her relationship with Cleve) and a "dark" side (represented by her involvement with Laredo). Barbara Stanwyck fully understands the complexity of the character and gives one of her finest performances (no one was better at playing good girls gone wrong and making them into real people rather than types) and director Robert Siodmak turns in equally impressive work, starting the film slowly and proceeding at times in a meditative fashion that gives the scenes both hesitancy and a strange depth. He also pulls out all the stops for the set-piece sequences, making them all the more startling by contrast with the more ruminative stretches. If Jordan ultimately falls just a little shy of classic noirs like Double Indemnity, it's still an exceptional film.