Can anyone ever escape his past? We spend most of this gritty noir thinking, no, it's impossible.
As hard as ex-con Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson) tries to go straight, he can't break free of the goons from back in San Quentin, and they force his cooperation in one last caper.
Hard-nosed Det. Lt. Sims (a toothpick-chewing Sterling Hayden) threatens Lacey with more time behind bars if he doesn't turn stoolie -- ("One day's work and I drop all charges!"). But Steve knows that would get himself killed. This movie resolves this conflict in a most unpredictable way.
Baby-faced Nelson, an actor I'd never seen before, does well as a guy who's tried to go straight by marrying a nice girl and doing the 9-to-5 as an aircraft mechanic. His wife Ellen (Phyllis Kirk) thinks they can lead a regular life, but Steve is skeptical. ("Once you've done a bit, nobody leaves you alone. Somebody's always on your back...I told you this is how it'd be.")
Filmed duskily in the style of a documentary, this film is full of interesting side characters, including Charles Bronson as a snarling street thug; Jay Novello as a disgraced doctor-turned veterinarian, Nedrick Young -- "I gotta get patched up" -- as a mortally wounded cop killer, and Timothy Carey as a crazily visaged bodyguard you mightn't trust with a pet rock.
Always running counterpoint are questions about freedom or its lack thereof.
Det. Lt. Sims: "Once a crook, always a crook."
Parole Officer: "That's nonsense -- a sick man can get well again."
As hard as ex-con Steve Lacey (Gene Nelson) tries to go straight, he can't break free of the goons from back in San Quentin, and they force his cooperation in one last caper.
Hard-nosed Det. Lt. Sims (a toothpick-chewing Sterling Hayden) threatens Lacey with more time behind bars if he doesn't turn stoolie -- ("One day's work and I drop all charges!"). But Steve knows that would get himself killed. This movie resolves this conflict in a most unpredictable way.
Baby-faced Nelson, an actor I'd never seen before, does well as a guy who's tried to go straight by marrying a nice girl and doing the 9-to-5 as an aircraft mechanic. His wife Ellen (Phyllis Kirk) thinks they can lead a regular life, but Steve is skeptical. ("Once you've done a bit, nobody leaves you alone. Somebody's always on your back...I told you this is how it'd be.")
Filmed duskily in the style of a documentary, this film is full of interesting side characters, including Charles Bronson as a snarling street thug; Jay Novello as a disgraced doctor-turned veterinarian, Nedrick Young -- "I gotta get patched up" -- as a mortally wounded cop killer, and Timothy Carey as a crazily visaged bodyguard you mightn't trust with a pet rock.
Always running counterpoint are questions about freedom or its lack thereof.
Det. Lt. Sims: "Once a crook, always a crook."
Parole Officer: "That's nonsense -- a sick man can get well again."