It's an unusual movie for MGM, known best for its family movies. Think "Little Women" and "Meet Me in St. Louis." This is pretty dark stuff, visually and otherwise.
Van Heflin is a contractor in a Los Angeles suburb, when Los Angeles still had suburbs. He's evidently the kind of contractor who's best at turning orange groves into monopoly houses so he's rich and respectable, with a beautiful young wife (Janet Leigh) and a child. He leads a life on the sunny side of the brand new street in Santa Lisa.
However we soon find that he's being tracked by the lame Robert Ryan. Ryan has black glittering eyes and carries an automatic and seems to be sneering all the time, consumed by a mysterious incandescent hatred for Heflin. Ryan tracks Heflin to a nice lake up in the mountains, then back to his home, then to a contractor's convention in Los Angeles. Heflin doesn't find out that he's being followed until half an hour or so into the film, but he realizes at once the reason for the pursuit. Heflin rushes in a panic through the empty wind-swept streets of LA at night, looking for the courage to kill himself, finally falling in with hooker Mary Astor and her louche friends, one of whom (Barry Kroger) he hires to wipe out Ryan before Ryan can get to him. But he's so fagged out, half drunk, when he makes the deal that the next day he must have Astor explain it to him. When he stumbles back to his house in the suburbs, Janet Leigh greets him with a big smile and chirps, "That suit will have to go to the cleaners. And you're a mess." Later we see her knitting socks or something. Those were the days.
So what did Van Heflin do and why is Robert Ryan going to kill him? They were POWs in the same Stalag. Heflin found that Ryan and a dozen others were to try an escape through a tunnel that the Germans knew about. Heflin couldn't dissuade Ryan, though other POWs had been killed trying the same route. So Captain Heflin went to the Germans and, after getting them to promise to go easy on the would-be escapees, he informed on them. The Germans fed him for that, while others were near starvation, but Heflin didn't care. He ate. He even ate while the Nazis went back on their word, bayoneted the escapees, and left them writhing and whining like run-over dogs. Ryan managed to escape by playing dead and now Ryan seeks revenge for himself and the dead men. Heflin pays for his sins by getting himself and Barry Kroger killed in the process of saving Ryan's life.
This is a more interesting film than it seems at the start. Oh, we know more or less right away that Heflin has done something bad, but Ryan's trench-coated, limping, scowling figure is so menacing that he seems to be not much more than a stock villain. You know, maybe Heflin quit the gang without permission or something. Or maybe he squealed on the boss. But, no. It's a more grown-up film than that. Heflin can no longer remember whether he informed to save the lives of his men or just for a loaf of bread. The evil influence here, Kroger as the hit man aside, is war. War seems to have a habit of corrupting at least as many of its participants as it ennobles, so it should probably be avoided.
The photography, by Robert Surtees, is exceptional. Evocative location shooting, from a lake shimmering under the sun, to seedy urban streets along which the wind machines blow shreds of paper. Fred Zinneman directed.
The problem with the movie, the thing that keeps it from being better than it is, is the dialog. It's flat and strictly functional. It doesn't give any of the characters much depth. There is nothing in this movie, for instance, to equal the scene in "Crossfire" in which Paul Kelly comes up with his surreal monologues. All the performances are good but none are memorable.
Van Heflin is a contractor in a Los Angeles suburb, when Los Angeles still had suburbs. He's evidently the kind of contractor who's best at turning orange groves into monopoly houses so he's rich and respectable, with a beautiful young wife (Janet Leigh) and a child. He leads a life on the sunny side of the brand new street in Santa Lisa.
However we soon find that he's being tracked by the lame Robert Ryan. Ryan has black glittering eyes and carries an automatic and seems to be sneering all the time, consumed by a mysterious incandescent hatred for Heflin. Ryan tracks Heflin to a nice lake up in the mountains, then back to his home, then to a contractor's convention in Los Angeles. Heflin doesn't find out that he's being followed until half an hour or so into the film, but he realizes at once the reason for the pursuit. Heflin rushes in a panic through the empty wind-swept streets of LA at night, looking for the courage to kill himself, finally falling in with hooker Mary Astor and her louche friends, one of whom (Barry Kroger) he hires to wipe out Ryan before Ryan can get to him. But he's so fagged out, half drunk, when he makes the deal that the next day he must have Astor explain it to him. When he stumbles back to his house in the suburbs, Janet Leigh greets him with a big smile and chirps, "That suit will have to go to the cleaners. And you're a mess." Later we see her knitting socks or something. Those were the days.
So what did Van Heflin do and why is Robert Ryan going to kill him? They were POWs in the same Stalag. Heflin found that Ryan and a dozen others were to try an escape through a tunnel that the Germans knew about. Heflin couldn't dissuade Ryan, though other POWs had been killed trying the same route. So Captain Heflin went to the Germans and, after getting them to promise to go easy on the would-be escapees, he informed on them. The Germans fed him for that, while others were near starvation, but Heflin didn't care. He ate. He even ate while the Nazis went back on their word, bayoneted the escapees, and left them writhing and whining like run-over dogs. Ryan managed to escape by playing dead and now Ryan seeks revenge for himself and the dead men. Heflin pays for his sins by getting himself and Barry Kroger killed in the process of saving Ryan's life.
This is a more interesting film than it seems at the start. Oh, we know more or less right away that Heflin has done something bad, but Ryan's trench-coated, limping, scowling figure is so menacing that he seems to be not much more than a stock villain. You know, maybe Heflin quit the gang without permission or something. Or maybe he squealed on the boss. But, no. It's a more grown-up film than that. Heflin can no longer remember whether he informed to save the lives of his men or just for a loaf of bread. The evil influence here, Kroger as the hit man aside, is war. War seems to have a habit of corrupting at least as many of its participants as it ennobles, so it should probably be avoided.
The photography, by Robert Surtees, is exceptional. Evocative location shooting, from a lake shimmering under the sun, to seedy urban streets along which the wind machines blow shreds of paper. Fred Zinneman directed.
The problem with the movie, the thing that keeps it from being better than it is, is the dialog. It's flat and strictly functional. It doesn't give any of the characters much depth. There is nothing in this movie, for instance, to equal the scene in "Crossfire" in which Paul Kelly comes up with his surreal monologues. All the performances are good but none are memorable.