I saw this one years ago on TV. Lately, my wife and I have been watching re-runs of "Highway Patrol" on MeTV and I thought it might be fun to see the movie again (she hadn't seen it) with Broderick Crawford in one of his famous movie roles. It wasn't fun. The Crawford character "Harry" is a screaming sociopath from the opening credits on, and he lacks any hint of subtlety, nuance, or humanity. What might work to convey character to someone in the last row of the theater rarely works on screen, where it seems forced and over-the-top. Harry even attacks his own lawyer in a fit of rage! He's a psycho, we get the point! The Holliday character is simply annoying. She screeches, and does strange, fidgety, neurotic things that are supposed to convey how "unsophisticated" she is. Instead, I got the sense she needed urgent psychiatric help. There is absolutely no chemistry between Crawford and Holliday - zilch - and Holden's motives are unclear throughout. (There is no chemistry between Holden and Holliday, either.) I know this is heresy in some movie circles, and I know Holliday won the Academy Award, etc. etc. etc. but I thought she was miscast in the role. (Holden was great as usual with the material that he had; he was absolutely-bar-none the greatest movie star of the fifties.) Rumor has it that Marilyn Monroe was tested for the Holliday part, and she would have been perfect: soft-hearted, soft-spoken, dazzling, vulnerable, sexual. Anyway, not for us - we stopped watching about 20 minutes in. Maybe it got better after that, I may give this one another shot down the road.
I see that most of the reviews on this site are glowing, 10/10 or 9/10. So..you have my opinion only.
I see that most of the reviews on this site are glowing, 10/10 or 9/10. So..you have my opinion only.