Pretty decent cast -- John Garfield, Wallace Ford, Selena Royle -- but the film is no more than routine. Garfield is a gangster who has just committed a payroll robbery. On the run, he takes refuge in the working-class apartment of a girl he just met, Shelley Winters, and her family -- Mom, Pop, and kid brother. His identity is discovered by the family and he quietly takes them hostage, holding a snub-nosed .38 on them. But what's he going to do with them? How is he supposed to get away with the dragnet out for him? Mom and Pop are quietly repulsed by him, but Winters is attracted and evidently spends the night with him, intending to accompany him on his getaway. He sends her out to buy a car with part of the payroll money but comes to believe she didn't buy the car. Instead, she's betrayed him to the police. In the end, she's forced to shoot him at the doorway to the apartment house. He looks surprised, says, "You never had no love for me," stumbles out the door, only to discover before he collapses that she'd been true to her word. There sits the car. And Garfield plops into the rain-filled gutter.
Mostly -- throughout the movie -- they talk. Then they talk more. Then they go on talking more. Garfield's character emerges as embittered and cynical, self pitying, angry at those who have betrayed him all through his life, beginning with his mother.
But he's not very smart. He allows the family to go out in order to show up at work or run errands, as long as he has one member at home for a hostage. While the rest are absent, in a burst of generosity and hope, he has an elaborate turkey dinner prepared. When they return, he beams with pride and tells them to dig in. But they remain silent, and Mom produces some left-over stew, which they proceed to spoon out without enthusiasm. "I don't get it," says Garfield. "What's the mattah with the toikey? Ga head -- cahve it up." Pop tells him solemnly, "This is our dinner. The turkey is YOUR dinner." Garfield is dumbfounded. "Huh? Oh -- I GET IT." (Finally.) It could easily have been a radio play, still popular at the time (1951) or a live TV show from Playhouse 90. The budget is low and the story skeletal. Usually they find room for remarks about how this is going to be the hottest day of the year or something. Here the patter is limited to remarks about the future, about good character, about responsibility, and they lead nowhere.
I usually find John Garfield's performances likable -- another lower-middle-class guy from New York -- but never magnetic. Shelley Winters usually gets panned but I don't know why. She's never bad, and often better than the script calls for.
Mostly -- throughout the movie -- they talk. Then they talk more. Then they go on talking more. Garfield's character emerges as embittered and cynical, self pitying, angry at those who have betrayed him all through his life, beginning with his mother.
But he's not very smart. He allows the family to go out in order to show up at work or run errands, as long as he has one member at home for a hostage. While the rest are absent, in a burst of generosity and hope, he has an elaborate turkey dinner prepared. When they return, he beams with pride and tells them to dig in. But they remain silent, and Mom produces some left-over stew, which they proceed to spoon out without enthusiasm. "I don't get it," says Garfield. "What's the mattah with the toikey? Ga head -- cahve it up." Pop tells him solemnly, "This is our dinner. The turkey is YOUR dinner." Garfield is dumbfounded. "Huh? Oh -- I GET IT." (Finally.) It could easily have been a radio play, still popular at the time (1951) or a live TV show from Playhouse 90. The budget is low and the story skeletal. Usually they find room for remarks about how this is going to be the hottest day of the year or something. Here the patter is limited to remarks about the future, about good character, about responsibility, and they lead nowhere.
I usually find John Garfield's performances likable -- another lower-middle-class guy from New York -- but never magnetic. Shelley Winters usually gets panned but I don't know why. She's never bad, and often better than the script calls for.