Painfully earnest police procedural, psychological murder yarn is nicely put together by the producing, writing, directing team of Adrian Scott, John Paxton & Edward Dmytryk; the loopy pulp pic CORNERED shows them at their best. But the script, which perforce swaps the gay angle of Richard Brooks’ novel for anti-Semitism, reeks of Dore Schary’s dramatic methodology. (Schary had just taken charge at RKO & he makes sure our Jewish victim was a wounded war vet & adds on a gentile vic so that even a racist can’t miss the point.) But if you can tune out during the bosom-swelling speechifying, there’s a neat trap set for the villain & a wonderfully weird scene between two strangers in a tart’s apartment. And what a first-rate cast: the Roberts Mitchum, Ryan, & Young, Gloria Grahame, Sam Levene, & Paul Kelly.
CONTEST: Martin Scorsese lifted a trick the cops use here when he made THE DEPARTED. Spot it and I'll write up a squib on any NetFlix DVD of your choosing.
No comments:
Post a Comment