Probably the biggest success of Dore Schary’s brief reign as head of RKO, an excellent B thriller (or, more correctly, an RKO “A”) about the murder of a civilian who’d been drinking with various soldiers the night before. The main suspect is a young kid (George Cooper, who’s never talked about in relation to this film but has one of the bigger roles) who’s gone missing; his two friends are amiable Robert Mitchum and hateful Robert Ryan.
The motive turns out to be anti-Semitism; in the original book it was homophobia, so on one hand it was a shame it got watered down – but anti-Semitism was still pretty gutsy at the time. Having said that, it only really comes up at the second half of the movie. Left wing propaganda is concentrated on two speeches: one eventual victim Sam Levene gives to Cooper in flashback (which when you think about it could be interpreted as a gay pick up), another when detective Robert Young (effective in a non-typical role), tries to persuade a friend of Ryan’s to trap him (so it’s not necessarily sincere). But it’s two-fisted left wing – Ryan isn’t sent to gaol, he’s shot dead in the street.
Hero duties are split between Mitchum in the first half and Young in the second; Mitchum disappears in the latter section but still registers strongly in his role. Gloria Grahame is also effective as a tramp, as is Arthur Kelly as her “husband”.
Crisply directed and beautifully shot in that film noir style; not an amazing story or anything but worth watching.
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