This minor film noir from RKO, an early credit for helmer Anthony Mann, gets the job done, but isn’t distinctive enough to stand out from the crowd. That’s also true of the pleasant, but unmemorable leads, Steve Brodie & Audrey Long. Brodie plays a truck driver who’s blindsided into working a heist, and when he tries to stop things by signaling a cop, the hot-headed kid brother of the boss (glowering Raymond Burr) panics and shoots the officer. Brodie runs off with his wife to some MidWest relatives and then turns himself in. But the cops won’t have him! They’d rather use him as bait to catch the whole gang. Mann isn’t quite able to make us swallow all his story curves, but there’s nice pickings along the way. Jason Robards, Sr. has one of his best outings as an eccentric police dick and, for some reason, Mann stuffs a small joke about food in almost every scene. A festive anniversary cake alight with the glow of four enormous plumber candles, Burr slicing fresh turkey breast off the carcass while terrorizing those MidWest relatives, an uneaten hamburger after a rub-out, a lousy last meal for a condemned man. Maybe they should have called this one DESPERATE . . . FOR LUNCH.
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While not as impressive as later Mann Noirs like T-Men and Raw Deal, this is still a very enjoyable entry in the genre. Along with classic tropes like the wrongly-accused WWII vet on the run, the obsessive, nearly-psychotic heavy (a role Raymond Burr would memorably take on several more times pre-Perry Mason), and the quirky police detective of Robards, Sr., the cinematography by George E. Diskant makes the film a must-see. The shot where Steve Brodie's character is being beaten up offscreen while a hanging light fixture swings wildly back and forth just above the fedora-topped heads of Burr and a henchman is just about as good as it gets, and there are many other atmospheric moments. Diskant was obviously quite good at this sort of stuff, and shot a bunch more Noirs including The Narrow Margin, The Racket, and Kansas City Confidential before settling into episodic TV work.
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