The Man I Love

Ida "Don't mess with me" {|Lupino|} takes a job as a singer in Robert Alda's seedy Santa Monica nitery. Lupino ignores Alda's advances to cultivate a romance with pianist Bruce Bennett. Alda uses his connections with the Mob to break up the relationship--and also, hopefully, to break up Bennett into little pieces. Logic is not the film's strong suit, but it scores on atmosphere and tension. Man I Love served as the inspiration for Martin Scorcese's much-later New York, New York.