Some movies have deceptive titles, but "Edge of Doom" delivers exactly what it promises, lots of doom and gloom. How many other movies feature a character whose mother dies at the beginning of the movie, who then spends most of the rest of the movie trying in vain to raise money for her funeral? A sense of doom is also evoked unrelentingly in the art direction and cinematography, both of which are splendid. The movie could almost serve as a textbook of visual style for noir, with its shadowy city streets at night and claustrophobic interiors. The seedy apartment building where most of the movie's main characters live is like one of the circles of hell in Dante.
You definitely feel for Farley Granger's character. (Even if it does get annoying to hear him say "my mother just died tonight" to almost literally every person he meets.) This movie gives Farley such a hard time that in the diner scene the cops take him jail before he can eat any of his food, even though he tells them he's starving, and then they make him pay the check!
I don't want to get into religion, or offend anyone, but I thought it was strange that the movie's "hero" is Dana Andrews priest/narrator character, as we are clearly shown that the church in this poor neighborhood is failing its parishoners. Granger's lashing at the arrogant old priest is at least understandable, given the man's lack of empathy for a woman who has put money in the church poor box every week that she clearly needed for herself and her family.
I found the ending unsatisfying, as Dana Andrews' narration ends and we are back to the present day Andrews says that Granger helped restore his faith, but he doesn't really seem to care much about him. He says that Granger writes him from his cell every week, but he's almost smiling when he says it. Since the whole movie was about Granger's plight, shouldn't we at least know what his sentence was? And then there's a last line about lemon in the tea that's supposed to end the movie on a comic note? Strange given everything that's come before. Well, I could never believe Dana Andrews as a priest anyway.
You definitely feel for Farley Granger's character. (Even if it does get annoying to hear him say "my mother just died tonight" to almost literally every person he meets.) This movie gives Farley such a hard time that in the diner scene the cops take him jail before he can eat any of his food, even though he tells them he's starving, and then they make him pay the check!
I don't want to get into religion, or offend anyone, but I thought it was strange that the movie's "hero" is Dana Andrews priest/narrator character, as we are clearly shown that the church in this poor neighborhood is failing its parishoners. Granger's lashing at the arrogant old priest is at least understandable, given the man's lack of empathy for a woman who has put money in the church poor box every week that she clearly needed for herself and her family.
I found the ending unsatisfying, as Dana Andrews' narration ends and we are back to the present day Andrews says that Granger helped restore his faith, but he doesn't really seem to care much about him. He says that Granger writes him from his cell every week, but he's almost smiling when he says it. Since the whole movie was about Granger's plight, shouldn't we at least know what his sentence was? And then there's a last line about lemon in the tea that's supposed to end the movie on a comic note? Strange given everything that's come before. Well, I could never believe Dana Andrews as a priest anyway.