I confess to not having seen many Lang films so when I saw this was available to stream, I was pleased to get the chance to start correcting that.
It's a small story of ex-con Eddie (Henry Fonda, playing a sort-of/almost bad guy years before his turn as Frank in my beloved Once Upon a Time In The West) trying to go straight when the world just won't let him, despite the unwavering support of his besotted girlfriend, Joan (Sylvia Sidney). Though this relatively small tale, Lang and his screenwriters, Gene Towne and Graham Baker, indict a whole system that simply can't believe a tiger can change his stripes.
This was Lang's second picture after coming to America, and the change in culture, and language clearly didn't throw him off. There's some powerful images, and a bravura sequence involving a raid on an armoured car in the middle of the movie that stick in the mind long after. The film is constructed in such a way too as to leave room for doubt; just how good a man is Eddie? Is he grasping this second chance? Can he return to old ways quite so quickly? All of which gives an audience plenty to chew on.
It isn't all good news though. Lang had worked with Sidney in his first American feature, Fury, and he must have liked her but she is given nothing to do here except stand by her man no matter what. Her only difficulty is wondering if she should be doing more for her man. Her character has no development - it's a waste of the actor who, after all, has top billing. I'm tempted to say that maybe that was the way with female parts in those days, but I'm watching this with my 21st century sensibilities, and it sticks out.
The film also doesn't turn up the heat on Eddie in any convincingly incremental way. He has one bad day, and things go off the rails. He alludes to having other difficulties but we never see them, and the latter half of the film suffers. Some of the dialogue is a little too on the money, as when Fonda flags up in his very first scene that he'll go straight "If they let me!" (Prescient!)
As an Irishman, I am obliged to point out how thickly William Gargan, as Father Dolan, is laying on the Oirish accent but that's what they hired Gargan to do, and honestly I found it kinda amusing.
Despite these deficits, the atmosphere, the steely determination of Fonda as Eddie, the increasing sense of options running out in the final reel all contribute to an entertaining and film noir that anyone would enjoy.
It's a small story of ex-con Eddie (Henry Fonda, playing a sort-of/almost bad guy years before his turn as Frank in my beloved Once Upon a Time In The West) trying to go straight when the world just won't let him, despite the unwavering support of his besotted girlfriend, Joan (Sylvia Sidney). Though this relatively small tale, Lang and his screenwriters, Gene Towne and Graham Baker, indict a whole system that simply can't believe a tiger can change his stripes.
This was Lang's second picture after coming to America, and the change in culture, and language clearly didn't throw him off. There's some powerful images, and a bravura sequence involving a raid on an armoured car in the middle of the movie that stick in the mind long after. The film is constructed in such a way too as to leave room for doubt; just how good a man is Eddie? Is he grasping this second chance? Can he return to old ways quite so quickly? All of which gives an audience plenty to chew on.
It isn't all good news though. Lang had worked with Sidney in his first American feature, Fury, and he must have liked her but she is given nothing to do here except stand by her man no matter what. Her only difficulty is wondering if she should be doing more for her man. Her character has no development - it's a waste of the actor who, after all, has top billing. I'm tempted to say that maybe that was the way with female parts in those days, but I'm watching this with my 21st century sensibilities, and it sticks out.
The film also doesn't turn up the heat on Eddie in any convincingly incremental way. He has one bad day, and things go off the rails. He alludes to having other difficulties but we never see them, and the latter half of the film suffers. Some of the dialogue is a little too on the money, as when Fonda flags up in his very first scene that he'll go straight "If they let me!" (Prescient!)
As an Irishman, I am obliged to point out how thickly William Gargan, as Father Dolan, is laying on the Oirish accent but that's what they hired Gargan to do, and honestly I found it kinda amusing.
Despite these deficits, the atmosphere, the steely determination of Fonda as Eddie, the increasing sense of options running out in the final reel all contribute to an entertaining and film noir that anyone would enjoy.