Nick Bianco and his gang sweat through the first few minutes of this knockout noir as they pull off a jewelry heist on a high floor in a Manhattan skyscraper. The tension is superbly handled as the trio waits out a long elevator ride down, knowing that one of the tied up or unconscious jewelers could be alerting the police at any time, and the Christmas joy and cheer around them only heightens the anger and frustration that Bianco feels at having to resort to a life of crime, though we are told (by the interesting choice of a female narrator) that he's been trying to go straight. Alas, Bianco gets caught - though the rest of his gang gets away - and goes to prison, despite a sympathetic Assistant DA trying very hard to get him to save himself - and his wife and kids - by squealing.
Justly famed as the film that made Richard Widmark a star, and there's no question that he steals every scene he's in, smirking and snickering with one of the creepiest laughs and most obviously crazed faces you've ever seen. But Widmark's only a supporting character, and the picture more rightly belongs to Victor Mature as the small-time lifelong con trying to go straight - and Mature delivers in probably the best performance of his career, aching with a weariness that only prison could bring to a man still in his prime, with sad eyes and regret etched into every movement in his lumbering frame. Widmark was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but IMO Mature deserved a nod in the lead category just as much; it's really hard to imagine anybody - even the biggest of noir stars like Kirk Douglas, Robert Ryan or Humphrey Bogart - doing better in the role.
I won't spoil the rest of the plot - this one develops very organically and naturally for the most part, and the use of real locations in New York and the acting choices and fairly low-key music make this one of the more "real"-seeming and natural of all films noir. An utter masterpiece.
Justly famed as the film that made Richard Widmark a star, and there's no question that he steals every scene he's in, smirking and snickering with one of the creepiest laughs and most obviously crazed faces you've ever seen. But Widmark's only a supporting character, and the picture more rightly belongs to Victor Mature as the small-time lifelong con trying to go straight - and Mature delivers in probably the best performance of his career, aching with a weariness that only prison could bring to a man still in his prime, with sad eyes and regret etched into every movement in his lumbering frame. Widmark was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but IMO Mature deserved a nod in the lead category just as much; it's really hard to imagine anybody - even the biggest of noir stars like Kirk Douglas, Robert Ryan or Humphrey Bogart - doing better in the role.
I won't spoil the rest of the plot - this one develops very organically and naturally for the most part, and the use of real locations in New York and the acting choices and fairly low-key music make this one of the more "real"-seeming and natural of all films noir. An utter masterpiece.