Runtime: 95 minutes
Directed by: Nicholas Ray
Starring: Cathy O'Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva, Jay C. Flippen, Helen Craig
From: RKO
A solid genre effort for Noirvember... although a rather somber one. It was recorded off of TCM earlier in the month & all the rave reviews this has received was enough for me to finally check this out.
Farley Granger plays a criminal who escapes from jail with a few buddies. He is portrayed as more sympathetic than the real louts and scoundrels he associates with-the worst being a “one-eyed lush.” He meets a girl, he gets injured, she nurses him back to health, they fall in love, they get married... is it a spoiler to say it does not end well for them? It's a surprise that this was the first film of Nicholas Ray; that is because his direction was so solid right out of the gate.
Time is spent getting to know our couple alongside Granger attempting to lead a clean life while avoiding the authorities-that is more the focus than the seedy underworld they happen to be involved in; that must be why I felt so melancholy when this concluded. Then again I should give credit to the entire cast in general, but for certain Cathy O'Donnell as the woman in the star-crossed relationship. There are some nice moments that make this not a constant depressing watch-such as a nightclub singer belting out a tune known as Your Red Wagon-yet this felt like a rewarding journey to me no matter if the romance was destined to fail from the very beginning.
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