I Wouldn't Be In Your Shoes (1948)

Film noir tropes, jokes, styles, flavours and fashions aplenty are the reward for watching I Wouldn't Be In Your Shoes, a 1948 noir with a heart. 

It's got humour too, and a fairly silly story, but it's delightful how much could be shoe-horned into 71 minutes of silver screen entertainment, at the height of the film noir era.

Two of the best tropes include the wifelet seeker hero, a staple of the early genre; and the falsely accused heel. He's hapless too, and actually quite hatless for noir.

Although the hero of this noir - Tom J Quinn, played by the relatively obscure Don Castle - works with his feet. So hapless and hatless he rides to his fate, a film noir heel nonetheless, with the solid backing of a good woman.

He's a dancer and this is a film noir of shoes, a graspable premise, summed up as: Vaudeville dancer Tom Quinn (Castle) is convicted for murder after his shoe prints are found at the scene of the crime. His wife Ann (Knox) follows the trail of clues to the real killer.