Three of Hal Wallis’ biggest discoveries in a film together: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas and Lizabeth Scott. They’d all been typecast quite quickly: Lancaster as a beautiful, doomed loser (out of prison after 14 years); Douglas as a heel (his former partner who betrayed him), Scott the slinky shady dame (Douglas’ plaything who falls for Scott).
The scenes between Lancaster and Douglas are electric – they were a great team – and there are some effective moments but after a promising beginning this never quite catches fire. There’s too much stuff about company by laws involving Douglas’ company (the script was written by a former lawyer), Lancaster’s character really is an idiot for going away for 14 years (which is a long, ling time), and I never really buy Lancaster and Scott as a couple who just can’t help themselves. I really liked Wendell Corey as a weak old associate of the two leads (I hated Corey as a leading man but he was a good character actor). Not bad but not the film noir classic it’s sometimes held to be.
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