One of those supreme noirs replenished with all the obligatory ingredients - a man lost in society and almost outlawed at the mercy of his relentless fate, the tender-hearted woman who just can't help helping him although she knows it's against all common sense, and a particularly diabolical "helper" doing his best to drag Burt further down the gutter of criminality with more consequences than he bargained for. It's a very dark film, the dominating element is the London fog illustrating the sword of Damocles hanging over Burt by actually covering almost every street scene in an ominous haze, which makes the cinematography the more suggestive and moody. Miklos Rosza's music makes the drama complete.
We don't know how it will end, like so many of Carol Reed's best thrillers we are left with unanswerable questions, and this film reminds very much of "Odd Man Out" - it's the same kind of hopelessness, the same entrapment, the same despair, while only Joan Fontaine makes a difference - she is not like Kathleen Ryan. It's a fascinating film for its denseness of intrigue with an action constantly tying itself up in more and harder knots, and no wonder almost everyone gets confused, which also the audience must be, with almost an obligation to have it all taken over from the beginning...
We don't know how it will end, like so many of Carol Reed's best thrillers we are left with unanswerable questions, and this film reminds very much of "Odd Man Out" - it's the same kind of hopelessness, the same entrapment, the same despair, while only Joan Fontaine makes a difference - she is not like Kathleen Ryan. It's a fascinating film for its denseness of intrigue with an action constantly tying itself up in more and harder knots, and no wonder almost everyone gets confused, which also the audience must be, with almost an obligation to have it all taken over from the beginning...