Just saw this on the MOVIES channel, and boy that ending did blow me away---the film and the acting were nothing short of classic,just damn good--- I knew that Kirk Douglas being in it meant it was going to be a good film, and I was proved right. That ending came out of nowhere,almost---it was like--honestly,it was like something you'd see in a 70s flick, not an early 50s film. I was like, "Damn, why did it even have to end like that? I mean, WTF!" Especially after all Douglas's character went through and put others through in the film. I also loved how the acting was much more naturalistic for a film that had stage roots----it didn't look in the least bit stagey,like sometimes some films from that era could be--the cast looked like real people and not Hollywood types at all.
Of course Douglas killed it as the cop, but so did the entire cast---in all fairness, Lee Grant (this was her film debut, I believe) wasn't given much to do after her first initial couple of scenes, and Wiseman (whom I didn't even recognize because he was so young) chewed up the scenery, bu tin a good and interesting way. I also liked he fact that there was a black policeman in the cast---even though he didn't have many lines to say, his presence was still quite an eye-opener for the simple fact that you rarely see black police period in 1950s films. All in all, this was a hell of a film, it turned out to be way more deeper than the standard film noir I was expecting from the title. It's like a forgotten classic,basically---harsh, intense and keeping it real for the eera it was made in---I also was surprised to hear the topic of abortion gone deeply into--- I can't even recall another film from that era in which a married women actually confesses to having an abortion---that was even more tripped out. I really admired and liked the hell out of it. Pretty damn impressive for what it was and for its era,too.
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