Judging by Mort Mills' reaction to a letter he receives in the opening sequence, it is clearly evident that he has not won the lottery. His hurried departure, with trousers symbolically flying at half mast, endorse the view that this is harrowing news. Alarm bells are soon ringing in the lives of key individuals with the disclosure that violent, crooked ex-cop Mark Stevens is about to be released from prison. They probably wish that he had tunneled out of San Quentin, on the off chance of his tunnel surfacing in Alcatraz!
Ominously, Stevens' first act as a free man is to purchase a gun, before inevitably stumbling into a bar, where he immediately locks horns with intellectual looking rude boy, Skip Homeier. With more than a passing resemblance to Bamber Gascoigne, Homeier is prepared to universally challenge and provoke anyone from fellow thug to innocuous desk clerk, leaving sufficient time to pursue his hobby of beating seven bells out of hapless lush, Joan Vohs.
Stevens' grim mission to exact revenge on the man he believes to be responsible for the murder of his family takes him to Ketchikan, Alaska at the height of summer. With eighteen hours of daylight, Cry Vengeance could be accused of being a film noir without the noir. Delivering his lines in a gravelly, low-key, monosyllabic, Eastwood style rasp, his solitary, embittered demeanor draws curiosity and the sympathetic ear of disarming Martha Hyer. Despite her placatory gestures there is little evidence of a thaw. Will this scarred, self absorbed, chip on both shoulders figure ever find redemption? Or is he intent on exorcising his personal demons via the blood spatter route?
Cry Vengeance is smartly paced and has some good action, including a respectful nod in the direction of Hitchcock's 'Saboteur.'With 'B' movie stamped throughout and shot on a budget comparable with the loose change in your back pocket, the movie exhibits an undeniable period charm, but it is not without its flaws. Stevens' flinty, one dimensional performance is largely devoid of any on-screen charisma, presence. NO! not Christmas presents!....charisma, presence and there are moments of mild, unintentional amusement as the movie teeters on the brink of amateur hour.
Compared in some quarters with 'The Big Heat'.....The heat is the probable limit of Cry Vengeance's ambition. The final? ...sadly out of reach.
