Unless you are specifically a fan of "Film Noir" or Fritz Lang, or Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame or Lee Marvin you may never have heard of this film. And that is a downright shame. The tagline was "A tough Cop and a soft Dame!" but it was more than that.
Like so much of Film Noir it was about heroes in a world where heroes don't always win. It was about corruption, greed and gangsters. But this one was also about love, loss and redemption.
It was such a huge hit at the time it came out that they rushed another pairing of Ford & Grahame, directed by Lang into the works, but it just didn't have the same grit. There is a love story here, but not between the two stars, there is a lot of revenge, but, mostly the story is about finding the truth no matter who gets hurt.
It is a raw cavalcade of emotions unfettered by societal niceties. Maybe that is why it reaches us on levels we wouldn't expect. Things that otherwise might be dismissed as over the top are taken in stride. It is the genre in its purest form.
Here is some of the cast:
Glenn Ford . . . Det. Sgt. Dave Bannion
Gloria Grahame . . . Debby Marsh
Jocelyn Brando . . . Katie Bannion
Alexander Scourby . . . Mike Lagana
Lee Marvin . . . Vince Stone
Jeanette Nolan . . . Bertha Duncan
Peter Whitney . . . Tierney
Willis Bouchey . . . Lt. Ted Wilks
Robert Burton . . . Det. Gus Burke
Adam Williams . . . Larry Gordon
Howard Wendell . . . Police Commissioner Higgins
Dorothy Green . . . Lucy Chapman
Carolyn Jones . . . Doris
If you are looking for interesting camera work or epic stories, this one isn't for you. If you are looking for pretty people doing pretty things, you can miss this film. If you want 89 minutes of interesting people making human decisions that will change their lives forever, and then having to live with the sometimes wrenching results, this one is for you.
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