Il ruvido poliziotto Jim Wilson viene disciplinato dal suo capitano e viene mandato a nord, in una città di montagna innevata, per aiutare lo sceriffo locale a risolvere un caso di omicidio.Il ruvido poliziotto Jim Wilson viene disciplinato dal suo capitano e viene mandato a nord, in una città di montagna innevata, per aiutare lo sceriffo locale a risolvere un caso di omicidio.Il ruvido poliziotto Jim Wilson viene disciplinato dal suo capitano e viene mandato a nord, in una città di montagna innevata, per aiutare lo sceriffo locale a risolvere un caso di omicidio.
- Premi
- 1 vittoria
- Julie Brent
- (as Pat Prest)
- Town Resident
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
- Man
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
- George
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
- Newsboy
- (non citato nei titoli originali)
Trama
Lo sapevi?
- QuizA hand-held camera was used in many scenes to give a "live action" feel to those sequences. This was extremely rare in feature films of the time.
- BlooperAfter Walter Brent knocks the lamp over, starting a fire, Mary Malden brings a lantern from the kitchen and places it on the end table where the lamp had been. A few minutes later, however, when she brings the tea tray, the table is on its side and Jim Wilson hurries to right it before she trips on it.
- Citazioni
Mary Malden: Tell me, how is it to be a cop?
Jim Wilson: You get so you don't trust anybody.
Mary Malden: [who is blind] You're lucky. You don't have to trust anyone. I do. I have to trust everybody.
- ConnessioniFeatured in Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann (1999)
The first half of the film finds brutal cop Robert Ryan stomping around the mean streets of a dark, brooding city, his abusive approach to meting out punishment keeping him only one small step from becoming the kind of criminal he spends his time tracking down. These early scenes are the most fascinating ones in the film, though (or maybe because) they have really nothing to do with the film's main plot and are all about developing the character of Ryan. He cruises around dark streets, the camera placed in the back seat of his car, filming the passing street as he is seeing it, his eyes reflected in the rearview mirror (Martin Scorses borrowed this kind of shot for "Taxi Driver" perhaps?) What emerges is the portrait of an isolated and lonely man barely maintaining a grip on his sanity in the midst of an insane world.
But the second half of the film dissipates the claustrophobic tension of the city environment by sending Ryan out into the country to investigate the murder of a young girl. He stumbles into the home of a blind woman (played by Ida Lupino looking like Loretta Young) and strikes up a timid romance with her, her gentleness and trustworthy nature providing just the antidote his jaded sensibilities need. Will their romance work, or are the two worlds they're from too different? There's much of interest about the portion of the film set in the country. The idea that the kind of crime traditionally reserved for the back alleys of city slums could be working its way into the great nowhere had to have been an uncomfortable idea for post-war America. And the crazed, vengeful father of the murdered girl is a far cry from the simple, kind souls we like to think people the American heartland. And Ray creates a visual interest in the country scenes as well. The harsh, barren landscape looks like the surface of the moon, no more inviting than the sinister, shadowy city streets to which it's juxtaposed.
But I got bored with the romantic plot line, and felt it was out of place in a film like this. And the ending especially didn't sit well with me. It seemed much more likely that Ryan would return to the streets he knows so well and continue his lonely existence, rather than come back to the love of a good woman in a cozy cottage in the middle of nowhere. I felt cheated, and wished that the ending could have had the guts that the rest of the film did.
A fascinating film in its own right, but a flawed one. You can't watch it and not think of the opportunities missed.
Grade: B+
- evanston_dad
- 16 mag 2006
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Dettagli
- Tempo di esecuzione1 ora 22 minuti
- Colore
- Proporzioni
- 1.37 : 1