Lawyer Thomas Farrell has made a career defending crooks in trials. He has never realised that there is a downside to his success, until he meets the dancer Vicki Gayle. She makes him decide to get a better reputation. But mob king Rico Angelo insists that he continues his services. A film that might be regarded as Nicholas Ray's farewell to Hollywood , as well as his tribute to Chicago in 20s, this 1958 feature is also one of his most affecting love stories. An unlikely alliance between a crippled and crooked lawyer and a dancing showgirl , both of whom try to escape the power of a tyrannical mobster , forms the basis for a flamboyant poem in delirious color and scope that is treated with a mixture of violence and lyricism that is unique to Ray. 在《阿飛正傳》愛過、痛過、反叛過之後，尼古拉斯．雷執導了。這部被喻為他最具感染力的愛情電影。二十年代的芝加哥，瘸腿律師遇上美艷舞孃……兩個本來不可能遇上的人，卻因為要逃避一個黑幫惡漢而情牽一線。尼古拉斯．雷在這部一九五八年黑色電影中，繼續發揮他的看家本領，把浮誇色彩、浪漫意境及詩意暴力共冶一爐，叫人看得嘖嘖稱奇。影片更影響了日後的美國黑幫電影，哥普拉的《教父》和狄龐馬的《義膽雄心》都難免有《派對女郎》的影子。
