La via della morte

This is a pretty good film noir that, happily, was released recently on DVD, giving us fans of this genre another movie to enjoy. It had one of the best noir directors, too: Anthony Mann, who always makes sure we get some great visuals. This is no exception, with good angles, shadows and light and a great big-city feel of New York.

Along the way, we get a not-untypical noirish tale of an basically-good guy who makes a dumb move and pays for his sins even after his conscience gets the best of him and he tries to atone. This winds up to be a story of a man chasing the real crooks, while the crooks and the police chase him! They still make films with these kind of plots and they are almost always interesting.

Farley Granger does a fine job in the lead as the dupe, "Joe Norson," who is too weak to pass up easy money and pays for it. Cathy O'Donnell is his wife and gets second billing but she really doesn't have that big a role. A bunch of other actors really share "supporting cast" status as Granger rules the roost here, lines-wise. For me, it was strange seeing James Craig as the "heavy." I mainly know him from totally opposite, All-American characters in films like "The Human Comedy" and "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes." Here, he's a viscous thug.

The city of New York might be the real second star of this film. There are many shots of it and its skyscrapers, from above and street level looking up. I love those old cars, too!