This Robert Siodmak-directed noir deserves closer attention. It's an excellent film that is much, much more than a re-hash of his 1946 noir masterpiece "The Killers". Granted, the plot involves a heist, director Siodmak is back on board and Lancaster again plays a big lug who dangerously falls for a sexy femme fatale and gets mixed up in a payroll heist, but it's deep, dark and tragic. Yvonne De Carlo's Anna is one of the more sympathetic of femme fatales, and as mentioned in some literature, her relationship with Lancaster is more romantic and complex, sort of "Romeo & Juliet", than first envisaged.
De Carlo is Lancaster's beautiful ex-wife, now married to shady gangster Slim Dundee (the always interesting, always menacing Dan Duryea). Lancaster's Steve Thompson, an armored car driver, is constantly urged by friends and family to stay away from her, but he looks for her every time. In voice-over, Lancaster muses on the workings of fate that always seem to drive him and Anna back together. But Siodmak shows us that Lancaster is a very active participant in his own destiny. He fools himself that it is fate-- in reality, he can't live without her. And it is that way too with De Carlo. Anna is a realist while Steve is an idealist. He stupidly believes that, after the bungled payroll heist, and he is kidnapped by one of Slim's henchman from the hospital, that the henchman won't give the money that Steve has bribed him with to take him to Anna, back to Slim. She flies off the handle and packs to leave, knowing that if Slim finds her he will kill both of them. But he is strangely at peace with coming death, because Steve is doomed with or without her. Steve is not the only one who keeps running back to their love--in the tragic, but cathartic, final scene Anna runs back to Steve as Slim pulls the gun to kill him. They die in each other's arms. Slim is also hopelessly in love with Anna, and he can't live without her either. Killing her because he can't have her, he also seals his own fate as the police arrive at the hideout.
Aside from the complex emotions dealt with in this great noir, it is also quite excellent on a technical level. Siodmak handles a tricky flashback with ease, helped immeasurably by Franz Planer's excellent black-and-white photography, There is a brilliant overhead shot as Lancaster's armored car sets up for the failed heist. The hospital scenes, with an injured Lancaster fearing that Duryea will send henchman to kill him, is filled with nail-biting suspense. Francis Ford Coppola might have borrowed a trick or two from Siodmak in adapting the famed hospital scene in "The Godfather" to the screen. Lancaster does very good work in a role that, on surface, he would seem to be miscast in. Instead he excels. Stephen McNally actually plays the good guy for once, but he's nowhere near as attention-grabbing as in his other films. Watch for Tony Curtis as De Carlo's dance partner in a sexy rumba dance scene!
De Carlo is Lancaster's beautiful ex-wife, now married to shady gangster Slim Dundee (the always interesting, always menacing Dan Duryea). Lancaster's Steve Thompson, an armored car driver, is constantly urged by friends and family to stay away from her, but he looks for her every time. In voice-over, Lancaster muses on the workings of fate that always seem to drive him and Anna back together. But Siodmak shows us that Lancaster is a very active participant in his own destiny. He fools himself that it is fate-- in reality, he can't live without her. And it is that way too with De Carlo. Anna is a realist while Steve is an idealist. He stupidly believes that, after the bungled payroll heist, and he is kidnapped by one of Slim's henchman from the hospital, that the henchman won't give the money that Steve has bribed him with to take him to Anna, back to Slim. She flies off the handle and packs to leave, knowing that if Slim finds her he will kill both of them. But he is strangely at peace with coming death, because Steve is doomed with or without her. Steve is not the only one who keeps running back to their love--in the tragic, but cathartic, final scene Anna runs back to Steve as Slim pulls the gun to kill him. They die in each other's arms. Slim is also hopelessly in love with Anna, and he can't live without her either. Killing her because he can't have her, he also seals his own fate as the police arrive at the hideout.
Aside from the complex emotions dealt with in this great noir, it is also quite excellent on a technical level. Siodmak handles a tricky flashback with ease, helped immeasurably by Franz Planer's excellent black-and-white photography, There is a brilliant overhead shot as Lancaster's armored car sets up for the failed heist. The hospital scenes, with an injured Lancaster fearing that Duryea will send henchman to kill him, is filled with nail-biting suspense. Francis Ford Coppola might have borrowed a trick or two from Siodmak in adapting the famed hospital scene in "The Godfather" to the screen. Lancaster does very good work in a role that, on surface, he would seem to be miscast in. Instead he excels. Stephen McNally actually plays the good guy for once, but he's nowhere near as attention-grabbing as in his other films. Watch for Tony Curtis as De Carlo's dance partner in a sexy rumba dance scene!