A mentally unbalanced young man kills a priest. One of the priest's colleagues sets out to find the killer.A mentally unbalanced young man kills a priest. One of the priest's colleagues sets out to find the killer.A mentally unbalanced young man kills a priest. One of the priest's colleagues sets out to find the killer.
- Awards
- 1 win
Houseley Stevenson
- Mr. Swanson, the Florist
- (as Houseley Stevenson Sr.)
Jean Inness
- Mrs. Lally
- (as Jean Innes)
- Director
- Writers
- Charles Brackett(uncredited)
- Leo Brady
- Ben Hecht(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAs Martin Lynn (Farley Granger) heads to the church, he first hears a brass band playing the gospel song "Yield not to Temptation." Then a choir sings the chorus of another old gospel song, "Bring them In." The lyrics to both songs are appropriate for the situation.
- GoofsNed Moore assaults the priest, Father Thomas Roth, in the rectory and as the priest falls to the floor, his Roman collar falls open and hangs loose. He stands up to continue the fight with his collar fully intact.
- Quotes
Father Thomas Roth: You may have given up on God, but he won't give up on you.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Watching the Detectives (2007)
- SoundtracksSkid Row Rag
(uncredited)
Music by Paul Sprosty
Featured review
One of the bleakest, most pessimistic films of the noir cycle
When Edge of Doom was first released, audiences turned away from it with the coldest of shoulders. It was yanked out of circulation so that a pair of bookends could be shot, in which the story becomes a kind of parable told by a wise old rector (Dana Andrews) to a younger priest undergoing a pastoral crisis. The filmmakers shouldn't have bothered: Edge of Doom remains one of the bleakest, least comforting offerings of the entire noir cycle (no mean feat), and probably the most irreligious movie ever made in America.
When Farley Granger's devout but tubercular mother dies, it precipitates a rampage against everything that makes up the prison of his life: his ugly urban poverty; his penny-pinching employer who offers promises rather than a raise; the Church, which once refused burial to his father, a suicide, and is now refusing his mother the "big" funeral he thinks he owes her; the smarmy, sanctimonious undertaker. Long story short, he ends up murdering a crusty, hell-and-brimstone priest. The police nab him for a robbery he didn't commit but end up with a different murder suspect. But compassionate pastor Dana Andrews (now in flashback) suspects the truth.... There's something almost endearingly Old Left about the savagery of the indictment leveled against society's Big Guns: Church, police and capitalism. The slum where Granger lived with his mother makes Ralph and Alice Kramden's Chauncey Street digs in Brooklyn look cozily inviting (Adele Jergens, as the slatternly wife of a neighbor, observes, "Smart people don't live here"); outside, the nighttown is noir at its most exhilaratingly creepy. It's easy to see why the public, on the cusp of the fabulous fifties, shunned this movie, whose unprettiness is uncompromised. But it's as succinct a summing up of the noir vision as anything in the canon.
When Farley Granger's devout but tubercular mother dies, it precipitates a rampage against everything that makes up the prison of his life: his ugly urban poverty; his penny-pinching employer who offers promises rather than a raise; the Church, which once refused burial to his father, a suicide, and is now refusing his mother the "big" funeral he thinks he owes her; the smarmy, sanctimonious undertaker. Long story short, he ends up murdering a crusty, hell-and-brimstone priest. The police nab him for a robbery he didn't commit but end up with a different murder suspect. But compassionate pastor Dana Andrews (now in flashback) suspects the truth.... There's something almost endearingly Old Left about the savagery of the indictment leveled against society's Big Guns: Church, police and capitalism. The slum where Granger lived with his mother makes Ralph and Alice Kramden's Chauncey Street digs in Brooklyn look cozily inviting (Adele Jergens, as the slatternly wife of a neighbor, observes, "Smart people don't live here"); outside, the nighttown is noir at its most exhilaratingly creepy. It's easy to see why the public, on the cusp of the fabulous fifties, shunned this movie, whose unprettiness is uncompromised. But it's as succinct a summing up of the noir vision as anything in the canon.
helpful•496
- bmacv
- Oct 26, 2001
- How long is Edge of Doom?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Auf des Schicksals Schneide
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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