Dennis O'Keefe is perfect in this very dark drama of a hopeless escape of a convict into a sea of trouble in which he can only get drowned, in spite of being assisted by two women at the same time. They appear from the very beginning and immediately embark on a quiet cold war between themselves to get him in the end, and the question is who is the real winner. As a relationship drama it is of immense human interest, and the ladies' manoeuvres are sustained in their fascinating innovations throughout to the bitter end. To this comes the outstanding eerie music by Paul Sawtell, the splendid direction by Anthony Mann leaving no second without suspense and the additional acting by the scoundrels John Ireland and Raymond Burr. The latter made quite a number of awesome monster bandits before he became Perry Mason. Claire Trevor and Marsha Hunt are both excellent enough, and you understand too well Dennis' constantly shifting feelings for them both. Anthony Mann in his younger years made a string of extremely efficient dark movies, and this is one of the darkest and most efficient.

Raw Deal has something of a typical noir situation as Joe, a basically likable but unlucky criminal, having taken the wrap for his evil boss, busts out of prison because he can't stand being cooped up in a small cell. Accompanied by his devoted girlfriend Pat, he kidnaps his lawyer's law abiding assistant Ann, who has mixed feelings about him. He then flees from the cops and goes to reconnect with his boss, who is secretly scheming against him. What sets Raw Deal apart is the focus on the two women, each of whom Joe sees as a representation of one aspect of his personality. Pat, who frequently divulges her feelings in voice-over narration, is completely loyal to Joe. Yet somehow Joe is reluctant to return her feelings completely, most likely because he feels that he has compromised himself with his criminal actions and her blind acceptance of them makes her something of a symbol for those aspects of himself that he feels bad about. At the same time, Ann is interested in Joe because of the good things he did before turning to a life of crime and she encourages him to go straight. So as the film goes on, each woman has an ethical dilemma to face. Ann must reconcile her burgeoning feelings for Joe with his criminal behavior while Pat must decide whether to sacrifice Ann to keep Joe. The upshot of all this is that Joe, having found his moral compass thanks to Ann, decides that it would be unfair of him to leave Pat after all she has done for him. While the narrative focuses on romance, stylistically Raw Deal is quintessential noir. The claustrophobic visuals emphasize the constant threat of danger, which might be found in any of the ever-present shadows. There are a couple of particularly nice visual touches in the hellish fire images that surround the villain. Mann remembers to work in some determinism as it seems that Joe is destined to find trouble at every turn. Overall, Raw Deal is a well-made noir film from Anthony Mann, one of the best directors ever to have worked in Hollywood. It helps that Mann is working with DP John Alton, whose noir photography is rightfully acclaimed. It also offers some unusually well developed female characters.

Another five-dollar lighting bill for classic noir. But then the cameraman is John Alton and the director Anthony Mann, so you know grotesque shadows will dominate. And scope out that nightmare forest where Smoky Bear wouldn't tread without a shotgun. It's a twilight world that Joe (O'Keefe) moves in. But that's as it should be since he's drawn in two directions—toward the conventional Ann (Hunt) and light, and toward obsessive revenge and the dark. And somewhere in between is poor Pat (Trevor) who's dead stuck on Joe whatever he does. Seems these women have old Joe twisted around in more directions than the Corkscrew Alley he's trying to get to.But I don't blame him. Seems the sleekly decadent Rick (Burr) has double-crossed Joe into prison, so now Joe's broken out and heck bent on getting to the Alley and the double- dealing Rick. Meantime, he and his lady-loves have to get past those two colorful torpedoes, Fantail and Spider, that Rick has deployed. Now if Joe could just straighten out his love life, things would be simpler but then so would the movie. The plot develops reasonably except for that weird intrusion into the lodge hideout. Why one escapee (Bissell) should blunder by chance into another's (Joe's) hole-up gets no points for believability. Then too, exactly how this advances the plot is as unclear as the foggy streets. Anyhow, it's compelling noir from the classic period even if it does lack the iconic spider woman. In fact, in an odd turnabout, it's Joe, the man, who plays the spider, luring the women to their maybe doom. So who says gender equality is a 60's invention.

"Raw Deal" is primarily a low budget crime drama but thanks to the inclusion of some interesting characters, excellent performances and sensational cinematography has also become recognised as a very memorable high quality film noir thriller. The whole movie is heavily steeped in an atmosphere which is bleak and fatalistic and the action takes place in an environment which looks perpetually dark and threatening.The look of the movie is attributable to the fine work of cinematographer John Alton whose single source lighting and heavily shadowed interiors create a claustrophobic ambiance which is symbolic of the extremely limited amount of freedom which can be enjoyed by the story's central character and his two travelling companions as they try to evade a massive police dragnet. The use of interesting camera angles, deep focus photography and swirling areas of fog also contribute strongly to the generally unsettling and rather ominous mood of the piece.Whilst serving a prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit, Joe Sullivan (Dennis O'Keefe) is visited by two women. Ann Martin (Marsha Hunt) is a legal assistant who tells him that with good behaviour he could possibly get released in 2 or 3 years time and his girlfriend Pat Regan (Claire Trevor) informs him that arrangements have been made for him to escape. The escape plan had been devised by gang boss Rick Coyle (Raymond Burr) who owes Joe $50,000 from a crime that they'd previously carried out together. Rick has calculated that Joe's chances of surviving an attempted breakout are minute and so confidently expects to be able to avoid having to part with Joe's money.Joe escapes and Pat drives the getaway car but they soon have to abandon the vehicle because of a large number of bullet holes in the fuel tank. They then go on to Ann's apartment where they kidnap her and use her car to continue their journey to meet Rick and collect Joe's money before heading for freedom in South America. This unusual threesome successfully evades the police and an attack by one of Rick's henchmen before Joe and Rick finally meet and a violent confrontation follows.Joe's resourcefulness enabled him to successfully negotiate the perils of being on the run but he was also preoccupied by the complications which developed in relation to his feelings for Pat and Ann. Pat was loyal and totally supportive but was also very much a part of the difficult lifestyle that he'd always known. When Ann and he became attracted to each other, she seemed to embody the possibility of a different and better life in the future. This situation led to some tensions as Pat became jealous and eventually resigned to Joe ending up in Ann's arms.Dennis O'Keefe and Marsha Hunt are both very good in their roles and Claire Trevor poignantly portrays the profound emotional pain suffered by Pat as she realises that Joe has never told her that he loves her and then also sees him steadily becoming more and more attracted to Ann. Raymond Burr is outstanding as Rick who is a vile and sadistic psychopath with a penchant for pyromania.The score by Paul Sawtell features the spooky sound of a theremin and this together with the tone of Claire Trevor's narration brilliantly reinforces the grim atmosphere of this film which doesn't end well for any of the main characters. Appropriately, from the visual standpoint, this movie is probably one of the blackest ever made.