John Sturges was one of the most reliable directors of Hollywood, consistently making greater and better films and in later years trusted with very advanced and complicated film projects, which he managed quite well like everything else. This is a minor noir but still reaching some monumental stature in its very interesting story of destiny and the chase of it while it ends up chasing you. Lew Ayres is always worth watching closely on the screen, he always accepted very interesting roles, and here he is pursuing a robber from his oil company and manages to hunt him down - to get him killed by mistake. He leaves a widow with a son, and Lew Ayres wants desperately to atone for his mistake and takes a job at her ranch as a an odd worker. She gradually understands his hand in her husband's death, while at the same time that marriage is proved not to have been too happy - so Teresa Wright marries Lew Ayres, and they are both happy for it, but that's where the real problem starts. Because Lew Ayres can't get it out of his mind that her previous husband was shot to death and blamed for the theft although he was innocent, and so the new husband sets his mind on finding the real villain in the mess.
The composition of the film is perfect, relying mainly on long flashbacks, greadually revealing a fascinating intricacy of a sordid matter, the photo and cinematography is also great, but above all you will enjoy the wonderful environments of wildest Mexico and Daniele Amfitheatrof's gorgeous music all through, with even some Mexican songs on the way. To me, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and most interesting film, and although there have been objections against the ending, I felt the opposite about it, just like an old classical deus ex machina turn of unexpected and quite natural character. In brief, I loved it, as I so far always greatly enjoyed all of John Sturges' films.
Review of The Capture
