99 River Street (1953)

Champion boxer turned humble cabbie John Payne’s wife Peggie Castle is having an affair with jewel thief Brad Dexter. When Dexter frames Payne for her murder, John teams up with his friend Evelyn Keyes to clear his name. Growing up watching Miracle on 34th Street, as an adult I’ve been intrigued by John Payne’s filmography and what he brings to his roles. Here he comes across as generally good guy broken by the dissolution of his chosen career due to injury and that brokenness leads to further cracks in his life, namely the relationship with his wife butting against her own expectations for her life. He has an array of friends who believe in his goodness and are willing to help him out and there’s just that twinge of hope that he and Keyes will find a way out of his predicament.