I bassifondi di San Francisco

A film for Bogart aficionados as this great actor once again oozes class as the tough but empathetic lawyer.

The film though doesn't hit the same mark. The script is fairly weak and dated. Similarly the plot is tenuous and as a movie it hangs together as a romantic drama to coming of age drama, to crime drama with noir touches to retrospective character study of a juvenile delinquent turned criminal and finally all under "courtroom drama". It tries to hard to be too many things and doesn't really do justice to any of them - only Bogart and McCready's performances save this movie from being destined to the "forgettable bin".

The pace and direction is generally good and though it was Nicholas Ray's second film, his cinematography and style (using noir tones and angles) is a clear forerunner of his classic noir films including In a Lonely Place (again with Bogart) and On Dangerous Ground.

And so to John Derek, he definitely had the pretty boy looks for the "Pretty Boy Romano" role but his acting is lame and isn't believable - no matter how much Bogart and McCready (who incidentally puts in a solid performance as the DA) try to drag him up to their standard.

All in all, a reasonably interesting and engaging watch despite the flaws. Had Ray cast a better actor than Derek (e.g. Clift, Garfield or Curtis) and developed a more robust plot and less cliched script, this could have been up there as yet another classic in the Bogart canon.