Nick Bianco is a raptor who turns stool pigeon, and he learns that birds of a feather do indeed flock together, especially when they become a murder of crows. Great direction from Henry Hathaway and photography from Norbert Brodine, who decide to film on location in The Big Apple with both crowded exteriors and cramped interiors, giving the film a lived-in feel.
Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) is a mug whose felony record is like a birth certificate, a man who decides to rob a jewelry store on Christmas Eve so he can afford presents for his family. This leads to a repeat performance at Sing Sing, booked for the next 20 years! Nick is unwilling to cooperate with the Assistant DA Louis D’Angelo (Brian Donlevy) so he is sent up the river to leave his wife and two little girls incarcerated in their own poverty row. His co-conspirator Rizzo, who wasn’t implicated in the jewelry store robbery, was supposed to look after his family while he’s doing time. But after three years Nick learns that his wife designed her own final solution, and the two children are now in an orphanage. Fuck! He feels betrayed and is ready to squeal, so the ADA paroles him so Nick can gather information on the syndicate who betrayed him. Unfortunately for Nick, the DA’s Office is hot for the psychotic hitman Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark), and it’ll be the kiss of death to double cross him. Hell, you’re taking your chance just saying hello to this fucking maniac!
The jewel heist that begins the film is expertly crafted, creating suspense out of taught editing and silence as it elides a musical score. As Nick and his cohorts ride the elevator to the 24th floor (on December 24th) they are a cohesive unit, just another day at work in someone else's office. They knock out an employee and tie up the manager, and the next five minutes are the gangsters riding the elevator to the lobby, sweating at each floor as shoppers get on and off, crosscut with the manager crawling slowly towards the alarm. Brilliant! The film also begins with a female voice-over who we assume to be Nick’s wife but is revealed in the first act to be his wife’s neighbor Nettie (Coleen Gray), a young lady who visits Nick in Sing Sing and soon declares her love for him. Nettie is no fatale, she is femme adorables!
Victor Mature as our paroled protagonist channels the intensity of Paul Muni! Mature is able to be brutish one moment yet reveal a suppressed compassion the next, an internal struggle to become a better husband and father that wars with the poverty of his soul. Coleen Gray is fucking adorable as Nettie whose unconditional love for her man knows no bounds, a woman so excited by his kiss that she just becomes limp as spaghetti. She imbues her character with a naive charm and motherly instinct, loving his two daughters as if her own. Brian Donlevy as the Assistant DA punches like a mug yet is a man of his word, and his intentions remain ambiguous. Does he truly care what happens to Nick and his family, or is he just using him to catch more bad guys and further his career? But it’s Richard Widmark who is the joker in this house of cards, a grinning, giggling psychopath who smiles like a bird of prey, with a laugh that’s like flesh being torn from the bone. Fuck, in one of the most famous scenes in the Film Noir genre, he ties up Rizzo’s crippled mom in a wheelchair and launches her down a flight of stairs!
Finally, after Udo is acquitted and Nick sends his family to temporary safety, the final showdown happens in an Italian Restaurant where Udo serves Nick his last supper. But Nick frames Udo to protect his family and takes several bullets in the gut (because Udo likes to see squirts squirm), so the police can gun Udo down. So, it ends happily ever after, probably with the need for a lifetime colostomy bag!
Final Grade: (B+)
