When I saw Jimmy Cagney in this movie way back in 1951, I thought it just a routine melodrama. Now, of course, it shines like a beacon of Hollywood craftsmanship Gig Young was nominated for an Academy Award – and fully deserved it! Normally, a somewhat dull actor, it's hard to believe he had such a convincing, tour-de-force performance in him. Admittedly, he gets a bit of assistance from make-up, plus the atmospheric photography by Robert Burks, but it's nevertheless an interesting and astonishingly credible portrait. In fact, the film's strengths lie in its acting, plus its atmospherically bleak, low key, film noir photography, plus its punchy dialogue, its racy direction and its colorful probing of the world of the alcoholic.
True, not all the acting is totally A-1: Massey tends to overact and is somewhat unconvincing and Thaxter makes a somewhat colorless heroine. And the screenplay tends to be a bit preachy at times, but it holds the attention nevertheless.
What does tend to undermine our interest is the familiar premise that newspapermen are the salt of the earth. (Why did Hollywood genuflect before newspapermen? The reason is, of course, that before TV became fully established as a household necessity, newspapers easily stripped radio as the number one choice to feed movies to the masses). Another disappointing aspect is the low-key climax. And although some scenes are lavishly filmed (the crash, for example), others show signs of cost-cutting. Ray Heinforf's music score tends to be a bit Mickey Mousey, but on the other hand, his piano concerto is a most attractive piece that alone makes the movie worth seeing again and again.
True, not all the acting is totally A-1: Massey tends to overact and is somewhat unconvincing and Thaxter makes a somewhat colorless heroine. And the screenplay tends to be a bit preachy at times, but it holds the attention nevertheless.
What does tend to undermine our interest is the familiar premise that newspapermen are the salt of the earth. (Why did Hollywood genuflect before newspapermen? The reason is, of course, that before TV became fully established as a household necessity, newspapers easily stripped radio as the number one choice to feed movies to the masses). Another disappointing aspect is the low-key climax. And although some scenes are lavishly filmed (the crash, for example), others show signs of cost-cutting. Ray Heinforf's music score tends to be a bit Mickey Mousey, but on the other hand, his piano concerto is a most attractive piece that alone makes the movie worth seeing again and again.