Desperate Reviews

The first entry in director Anthony Mann's series of noir films (BORDER INCIDENT; HE WALKED BY NIGHT; RAILROADED; RAW DEAL; SIDE STREET; T-MEN) is a disturbing twist on middle-class values, responsibility, and guilt. Brodie is a newlywed truck driver who accidentally becomes involved with a gang that robs a fur warehouse and kills a cop in the process. One of the gang is captured, convicted, and sentenced to die in the electric chair. But Burr, the leader of the crooks, plans on forcing Brodie into confessing to the murder: if the driver balks, the gang will kill his wife. Brodie and his wife flee to the country, hiding out at an isolated farm owned by relatives. In more ways than one, this idyllic setting is a long way from the dark, urban world the couple has fled. Suddenly, however, the noir world invades the country when Burr and his gang find the twosome. Luckily, Brodie and his bride are saved moments before Burr can kill them. Mann directs with an assured style and creates a world in which physical violence is very real and very brutal. Significantly, Brodie's honest truck driver runs for his life without even considering trying to bring the rest of the gang to justice--his situation so hopeless that he is forced to disregard social responsibility. Mann creates a grim world where there are few noble choices and all characters are driven to desperation.