 Film biographer David Quinlan, writing in 1983, concluded that the film's fundamental flaws extended from Godfrey's shortcomings as a director and the miscasting of Bogart as an insane wife-killer.Some reviews of the film are more mixed.Madsen, for example, says the one well-written and well-acted scene in the film occurs when Stanwyck breaks into Bogart's studio and sees his demonic painting of her.