Directed by Edward Dmytryk
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Bros)
A good film noir starring three Bobs: Montgomery, Mitchum and Young. Montgomery's performance is probably the strongest, but he's got the most to work with as the killer with a hatred for Jews. Montgomery is not bad as the cool, calm and collected police detective. Mitchum is one of many Army pals involved in the complicated murder. All of the noir conventions are here: dry narration, long flashbacks, a disillusioned detective... there is no femme fatale per se, although Gloria Grahame does her best. The racist angle is not really explored, its basically a motive for the killing and nothing else. Interestingly enough, in the original novel it was not antisemitism but homophobia, and there are still some subtle hints of that if you follow along closely.
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