With the slightly frayed good looks of an aging matinee idol, Arturo de Córdova became Mexican noir’s perfect patsy, helplessly in thrall to his erotic obsessions. The title of Robert Gavaldón’s film cuts two ways: as the fraudulent fortune teller Professor Karin, Córdova uses the secrets of his female clientele to blackmail them, while at the same time he is a pawn in the higher game being played by a treacherous widow.