A tense, gripping film noir, most notable for the remarkable debut of Richard Widmark as a psychotic thug, but also for a fine performance by an actor whose performances, I think, were too often denigrated, not least by himself, namely Victor Mature.
Both their performances plus the extensive use of actual New York locations and a gritty, contemporary screenplay by the celebrated screen-writing team of Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer, help elevate this already fine feature to a different level.
Widmark plays Tommy Udo, a small-time crook, who dresses in what he thinks is a stylish suit and an unusual dark shirt and light tie combination, not to mention white socks. The local police, particularly local captain Brian Dunlevy, are anxious to get Udo back behind bars and when they catch Mature's Nick Bianco at the scene of another robbery, knowing that he's a past associate of Udo's, they lean on him to give up Udo on unsolved past crimes they carried out together. At first, Mature turns down flat the police proposal, but then Dunlevy promises him a new identity in a new town, with his family, if he'll turn State's evidence and get Udo sent down. Although worried about being perceived as a stool-pigeon by the criminal fraternity with whom he was once associated, especially after we learn that his wife has recently committed suicide for reasons unspecified but obliquely linked to another gangster connected to Udo, Mature, with a new young girlfriend in tow, finally takes the cheese, trusting in so doing that his evidence against Udo will be sufficiently corroborated to finally see the villain incarcerated, at least that's what Dunlevy's character assures him. But this is a film noir and you can bet that fatalism as ever, interferes with reality, and Udo gets off.
Now, living in fear, especially after he learns that Udo has disposed of another informant's uncooperative wheelchair-bound mother by callously rolling her down a stairwell to her death, Mature packs off his kids and new girl to an out of town location and prepares both himself and Dunlevy for the final showdown between the two thieves who have fallen out...
Widmark is absolutely chilling with his projected buck teeth, dress sense, wicked cackle and above all, his hair-trigger temperament. Mature is a fine counterweight for him, with a measured performance as a criminal desperate to make his way in the world despite his past.
A tough, archetypal noir movie, directed with style and intelligence by the veteran Henry Hathaway, you'll go a long way before you find a better one than this.
Both their performances plus the extensive use of actual New York locations and a gritty, contemporary screenplay by the celebrated screen-writing team of Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer, help elevate this already fine feature to a different level.
Widmark plays Tommy Udo, a small-time crook, who dresses in what he thinks is a stylish suit and an unusual dark shirt and light tie combination, not to mention white socks. The local police, particularly local captain Brian Dunlevy, are anxious to get Udo back behind bars and when they catch Mature's Nick Bianco at the scene of another robbery, knowing that he's a past associate of Udo's, they lean on him to give up Udo on unsolved past crimes they carried out together. At first, Mature turns down flat the police proposal, but then Dunlevy promises him a new identity in a new town, with his family, if he'll turn State's evidence and get Udo sent down. Although worried about being perceived as a stool-pigeon by the criminal fraternity with whom he was once associated, especially after we learn that his wife has recently committed suicide for reasons unspecified but obliquely linked to another gangster connected to Udo, Mature, with a new young girlfriend in tow, finally takes the cheese, trusting in so doing that his evidence against Udo will be sufficiently corroborated to finally see the villain incarcerated, at least that's what Dunlevy's character assures him. But this is a film noir and you can bet that fatalism as ever, interferes with reality, and Udo gets off.
Now, living in fear, especially after he learns that Udo has disposed of another informant's uncooperative wheelchair-bound mother by callously rolling her down a stairwell to her death, Mature packs off his kids and new girl to an out of town location and prepares both himself and Dunlevy for the final showdown between the two thieves who have fallen out...
Widmark is absolutely chilling with his projected buck teeth, dress sense, wicked cackle and above all, his hair-trigger temperament. Mature is a fine counterweight for him, with a measured performance as a criminal desperate to make his way in the world despite his past.
A tough, archetypal noir movie, directed with style and intelligence by the veteran Henry Hathaway, you'll go a long way before you find a better one than this.