This is different, I'll say that. It's billed as a film noir but it's really a melodrama.
It's a romance story involving the characters played by George Raft and Sylvia Sidney. This was my first look at Sidney and she wasn't all that appealing to me. Since then I have seen her many times in films spanning a number of decades, on film or in guest appearances on television shows. Although hardly a beauty, she always was interesting. So was George Raft, who played a very low-key role in this movie. He was best playing a tougher gangster.
A man who received no billing in this movie but was really the third star was Warren Hymer, who played a dumb crook. There were also two musical numbers in this movie, one of them delivered in strange prose by the criminals.
As I said, this was kind of a strange piece of entertainment. Director Fritz Lang wanted to make a statement about crime not paying but he wanted to tell it in a different format. Well, I can appreciate that but I think he could have done that in a more entertaining way because the middle of this film dragged way too much and might have lost a lot of viewers. The ending was inventive but a little corny, too.
It's a romance story involving the characters played by George Raft and Sylvia Sidney. This was my first look at Sidney and she wasn't all that appealing to me. Since then I have seen her many times in films spanning a number of decades, on film or in guest appearances on television shows. Although hardly a beauty, she always was interesting. So was George Raft, who played a very low-key role in this movie. He was best playing a tougher gangster.
A man who received no billing in this movie but was really the third star was Warren Hymer, who played a dumb crook. There were also two musical numbers in this movie, one of them delivered in strange prose by the criminals.
As I said, this was kind of a strange piece of entertainment. Director Fritz Lang wanted to make a statement about crime not paying but he wanted to tell it in a different format. Well, I can appreciate that but I think he could have done that in a more entertaining way because the middle of this film dragged way too much and might have lost a lot of viewers. The ending was inventive but a little corny, too.