Western Pacific Agent

This is amazingly good for being a B-feature without any stars. The interesting thing is that the two leads, father and son, Morris Carnovsky and Mickey Knox, were blacklisted in the McCarthy persecution days, so they had to resort to second hand roles in second hand features, but this is a jewel in the mud. There are many memorable scenes, but most striking are the genuine insights into the life and camps of the outcasts, trams and bums living at camp fires in the forest and hiking on freight trains, there is a startling scene on such a train when one bum throws the other out, and thus the whole character of the film becomes that of genuine realism from the underworld. There can be no sympathy with Mickey Knox, while the sympathy with his father Morris Carnovsky must be infinite, and their relationship is particularly poignant in its desperate humanity. This is no trifle of a film despite its very basic B-character, but it will leave you with very much to think of.