A hospital-bound drama that gets more exciting to watch when it gets out of the hospital. Any film with Sidney Poitier from this era (or just about any era) is bound to have racial overtones, and this one is about as overtoned as they get. Richard Widmark reprises his psycho image, this time as a racist thug arrested with his dying brother after being shot in the leg while trying to rob a gas station, and Poitier is the doctor assigned by idealist head doctor Stephen McNalley to work in the county hospital's lock-up criminal ward. Between all the mutual admiration between Poitier and McNalley the film gets preachy, but finds some legs (literally) when attractive Linda Darnell comes in as the dying brother's estranged wife and opens a can of worms with her relationship with Widmark and other racists from his part of town. The white racist community is fairly chillingly portrayed (it's the strongest part of the film in my opinion) as they prepare one night to attack the black part of town, with cinematographer Milton Krasner really finding the perfect mix of light and darkness in scenes that explode off the screen.
Review of No Way Out
