First of all, thanks to regular commenter Neil Doyle for confirming my suspicion that I did actually see a very young Tony Curtis on the dance floor in this film.
This is a very tidy little movie, pretty gritty and very intense in its action scenes. Burt Lancaster stars as Steve, a guy who's willing to give up way too much to get back together with his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) even though she's taken up with a sadistic hoodlum (Dan Duryea). Duryea seemed to specialize in small-time guys who carry their nasty world-views on their sleeves, and he adds a lot to this movie although I wish maybe there was just a bit more of him. A few more scenes with Duryea and a few less with the moralizing cop friend (Stephen McNally) would have helped. But this film motors very efficiently towards its dark conclusion at any rate.
The real set-piece is a big caper, so you could look at this movie as a heist film. Everything builds up to the heist by way of a flashback; Steve works for an armored car company and he's set up a heist with Duryea's character, Slim Dundee. There's nothing very original in the set-up, and it's not hard to see the double-double cross coming. But it's thoroughly enjoyable because of Siodmak's tight direction, Miklos Rozsa's subtle score, and quality performances from all 3 leads.
This is a very tidy little movie, pretty gritty and very intense in its action scenes. Burt Lancaster stars as Steve, a guy who's willing to give up way too much to get back together with his ex-wife Anna (Yvonne De Carlo) even though she's taken up with a sadistic hoodlum (Dan Duryea). Duryea seemed to specialize in small-time guys who carry their nasty world-views on their sleeves, and he adds a lot to this movie although I wish maybe there was just a bit more of him. A few more scenes with Duryea and a few less with the moralizing cop friend (Stephen McNally) would have helped. But this film motors very efficiently towards its dark conclusion at any rate.
The real set-piece is a big caper, so you could look at this movie as a heist film. Everything builds up to the heist by way of a flashback; Steve works for an armored car company and he's set up a heist with Duryea's character, Slim Dundee. There's nothing very original in the set-up, and it's not hard to see the double-double cross coming. But it's thoroughly enjoyable because of Siodmak's tight direction, Miklos Rozsa's subtle score, and quality performances from all 3 leads.