As a huge fan of Budd Boetticher's Randolph Scott westerns, I really looked forward to this 1956 thriller. Though it certainly held my attention, the movie was a disappointment. The tension it managed to create early on as Wendell Corey escapes from a prison trustee farm really went slack--done in by a lousy script. Boetticher keeps things moving, helped immensely by Lucien Ballard's terrific black-and-white camera work. But I don't get the feeling the director was very interested, aside from the scenes focusing on Corey. Other reviewers have rightly praised the scary, yet oddly sympathetic, character that Corey creates here. It's just too bad the script was so perfunctory. Rhonda Fleming seems right as police detective Joseph Cotten's wife, Lila, but her role is so poorly conceived (and she becomes so annoying), that I lost all interest and sympathy for her. The other big negative is Joseph Cotten, at 50+, too old for the police detective. Even worse, you can't watch him without seeing Joseph Cotten; he doesn't create a character and his movements seem all wrong as a cop. Great 1950's LA locales, though. And worth catching for Corey's performance.

(5.5 out of 10!) Fairly forgettable for the most part, but still sort of interesting as an artifact of a 1950s B movie thriller/police procedural. The problems: Joseph Cotten (whom I often like) isn't particularly good here, looking rather tired and perhaps a little disengaged; the character of his wife, played by Rhonda Fleming, is considerably shrill and annoying, to the point of being very nearly unsympathetic; the story itself is considerably simple; and the climax is rather weak and too abrupt. Still, Wendell Corey is quite convincing as psychopath Leon "Foggy" Poole, and it's fun to see some of the settings, styles, and conventions of mid-50s Los Angeles. (Future Gilligan's Island resident Alan Hale Jr. is also on hand.) Budd Boetticher's direction may be closer to very competent than anything else, but it's not bad by any means. Overall, nothing like a must-see, but this may still add some B movie color (not literally, it's black and white) to your classic film viewing.

I watched this film purely because the plot sounded interesting; but unfortunately, it wasn't justified with an involving film and the result is a thriller that has little to recommend it for. The plot is rather simple and stays pretty streamlined for the duration. A robber's wife is accidentally killed by a cop; and on the way to jail, the robber promises the cop that he will 'settle the score' for killing his wife. Two and a half years down the line, the robber has become a model prisoner and is moved to a minimum security prison; where he escapes and goes on the run, with the cop's wife in his sights. The most remarkable thing about this film is the lead performance from Wendell Corey. He provides a different kind of villain to what most people will be used to seeing; he's calm, cool and collected and clearly only intending to kill the cop's wife because he wants revenge, not because he's a deranged psycho. The film lacks atmosphere and it's far too talky as well, which bring it down and takes the edge off it; leaving the film feeling rather boring. Joseph Cotten never really gets involved with character either, and this performance doesn't ever allow him to flex his acting muscle. At seventy minutes, the film is rather short and I guess it didn't cost much to make either. I don't recommend anyone goes out of their way to see this.

Good touch when pots and pans clang to the floor after the John Larch character gets blown away by an unblinking "Foggy" Poole (Corey). Old Foggy may not be much in the charm department, but behind that deadpan stare lurks an iron will that won't be deterred. Corey's offbeat impersonation is one of the more memorable villains of the period, foreshadowing the complex bad guys of director Boetticher's celebrated Ranown Westerns. Cop Joseph Cotton doesn't realize that old Foggy is too addled to distinguish between intention and accident. Poole only knows that his one emotional link to the world, his beloved wife, has been killed by the cop, and by golly it's an eye-for-an-eye. And when he speaks lovingly of his need for her, the one person in his life who's treated this bespectacled weirdo with respect, he's humanized in ways that screenplays seldom bother with. As an actor, Corey was known for an exceptionally cold demeanor, but when his cold-blooded killer speaks those lines from behind the coke- bottle glasses, an unexpected pathos emerges. It's a first-rate performance, such that were the Oscars not so prejudiced against low-budgeters like Killer, Corey would have been considered for a presentation.The Foggy role is clearly the best thing the movie, which otherwise is pretty much standard thriller fare. There's an obvious effort at building up Fleming's role as the cop's wife. After all, she was a glamour star at the time (note the eye-catching tops she sports). And working her somehow into the woman-in-danger finale is pretty predictable. Nonetheless, Boetticher puts it all together in compelling fashion, including the persuasive LA locations, especially the freeway roadblock. The tie-up looks real, but if it was, I wonder who pacified the long lines of stuck motorists. Also, army guys who've suffered under an arrogant non-com like Larch's probably get some perverse satisfaction out of seeing a sadsack like Foggy finally blow his tormentor away. I suspect this was an instance of writer's revenge. Anyhow, despite the many clichés, there are a number of nice touches, but most of all, there's the truly offbeat approach to the whole idea of 50's movie villains.