No Way Out (Fox Film Noir)
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Movie Reviews of No Way Out (Fox Film Noir)
Movie Review: White on Black on White
Summary: 5 Stars
Poitier always looks good in his movies because he surrounds himself with hams. Look at A PATCH OF BLUE, he seems very restrained next to the shrieking virago Shelley Winters is playing. Or how about GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? He's calm, cool and collected and seems even more so when the camera captures him next to the quivering, stricken Katharine Hepburn. Even when he himself is guilty of overacting, such as the steamy IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, he got lucky and was cast opposite the one man in Hollywood who could declaim louder and sweatier than he himself, Rod Steiger as the sheriff. Well, as NO WAY OUT proves, he was lucky even in his very first picture. Once you have Richard Widmark as a slimy, white trash redneck hollering racial epithets and whipping up crowds of Bowery bigots into a lynching frenzy, all you have to do is show up and you'll look like a pro.
Widmark and Poitier, both still alive, might have been better choices to provide commentary for the new DVD, for Eddie Muller, the hardest working man in the commentary biz, just is overstretched once again. He's good about Linda Darnell, the tragically ignored actress who excelled at just about everything but people thought she was a shallow pinup doll. In many of her movies she burned to death, or survived fire barely, and the final irony was that she died of a house fire, so young and still very beautiful and generous. In his recent memoir Tab Hunter speaks fondly of working with Darnell on *his* very first feature; funny thing is, Eddie Muller wrote that book too! He's all over the place, a sort of one man crash course in cross-collateralization. Lesser Samuels, who shares writing credits with Joe Mankiewicz, had two gears to his work: he wrote light hearted fluff (like his preceding film, ADVENTURE IN BALTIMORE with Shirley Temple) or hard-hearted noir grit tragicomedies, like his succeeding film ACE IN THE HOLE (also known as THE BIG CARNIVAL).
Poitier does look a bit young to play the intern here; it's a part that might have been played to advantage by the slightly older and sexier James Edwards (from HOME OF THE BRAVE fame), but as we know, a prim racism had driven Edwards out of leading man status far down the line into bit parts. This great actor, buried in Hammond, Indiana, didn't even make it as a cameo in NO WAY OUT. He was too "uppity" from all accounts. What a pity, as I have always wanted to see James Edwards sharing the screen with Linda Darnell.
Movie Review: Intense, violent, racial slurs abound
Summary: 5 Stars
I grew up in a white middle class racist family in the 1950's and the "N" word was frequently used when I was a boy. To watch this film today and view the intensity of the venom of racial hatred depicted by Richard Widmark and the other racial slurs he uses borders on offensive! Linda Darnell is great portraying someone trying to pull themselves out of the mire they were raised in. The scene in the junkyard prior to the race riot is one of the most pathetic scenes I believe I've ever seen in a movie. Even though this movie was made in 1950, when played on cable today (FOX) it is rated MA for Mature due to language and violence. AS a Sidney Poiter fan, I enjoyed this film. If you read about Poiter, you can learn about how difficult a time he had in New York City washing dishes and mastering English by listening to a radio he bought with dish washing wages so he could go out to auditions.This Life AND The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (Oprah's Book Club) and This Life
One memorable line of Poiter's near the end of the film: " I can't let a man die just because he hates me!"
Poiter uses the pistol that Widmark tried to kill him with as a lever to tie off the tourniquet on Widmark's leg - nice irony.
The scenes in the hospital of the Chief Medical Resident, Poiter's boss/supervisor, are memorable for the portrayal of a white man with a decent attitude toward Poiter - very interesting and ahead of its time to be sure for 1950. Other scenes in the hospital's prison ward where criminals are taken, are memorable for the incompetence of the guards, second guessing of the doctors, especially Poiter, by the guards, and a prime example of the inmates running the institution.
In the hospital scenes, just to see again an elevator that has a black man operating it, is a throwback to times I have certainly chosen to forget.
In the current political climate of our country, many would like to turn back the clock to the 1950's. I suggest they watch this film first before they advocate for the racial and class hatred depicted in the film.
Movie Review: No Way Out
Summary: 5 Stars
There's nothing much subtle about NO WAY OUT. Two men, two brothers, are injured by the police while committing a petty crime. The men are transported to the prison ward of the county hospital, where one of the brothers dies while being treated by a young intern. The surviving brother vows mortal vengeance. The doctor needs the approval of a family member to conduct an autopsy to prove his competence and relieve his conscious.
It's a suitably sturdy set-up for what could have been an unspectacular urban melodrama. Trouble is NO WAY OUT is pretty spectacular. For starters, the young doctor is black and the surviving brother is a virulent racist. The talent behind the movie is, to put it mildly, impressive. It begins with the amazing producer Darryl Zanuck, the motor behind such thinking-person movies as The Grapes of Wrath & The Snake Pit, and who seemingly was incapable of making a bad movie. Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote and directed this movie, and though nominated for an 1951 Oscar for Best Director lost out to himself when he won it for another, much different, classic, All About Eve.
Message movies have a tendency to collapse under their moral weightiness. NO WAY OUT is a movie with a social conscious, but it, for the most part, steers clear of the pulpit. Richard Widmark is perfectly cast as the racist Roy Biddle, who is quite possibly the most loathsome major character in film history. Sidney Poitier, in his first movie, brings just the right blend of intelligence and dignity to his part as the young physician under the gun. Rounding out this unusual triangle is Linda Darnell as the ex-wife of the dead brother.
NO WAY OUT is an uncomfortable movie to watch. Roy Biddle is a vocal racist, and he uses just about every ugly name in the book, loudly and often. There are some scenes of the Beaver Canal group, Biddle's cronies, preparing to attack the black part of town, that are nightmarish. Linda Darnell, the car-hop girl who thought she'd crawled away from Beaver Canal, comes across as an almost tragic figure. This is an intelligent, driving movie, with some scenes that might not be appropriate for young children. The Warner Brothers print is in very good condition, and, as always, the man who can name every actor in history, and has anecdotes to back him up, Eddie Muller's commentary track enhances the experience.
Movie Review: SIDNEY POITIERS' FILM DEBUT PACKS A WALLOP !
Summary: 5 Stars
Any film noir starring Richard Widmark and Linda Darnell, with script and direction by Joseph Mankiewicz is sure to rate atleast 4 (out of a possible 5 ) star rating.Add the great Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee to the cast and your edging closer to a 5 star rating, and makes this film is the quiet, understated performance by Sidney Poitier, in his film debut.The three leading players Linda, Widmark (never better as a ugly racist] and Poitier come to life vividly under Mankiewiczs'expert direction.Wonderful commetary by Eddie Mueller,who is also a great fan of the of that forgotten treasure LINDA DARNELL.Great to know Fox is releasing two great noir films on June 6-2006-"I WAKE UP SCREAMING", and "HOUSE OF STRANGERS", (also directed by Mankiewiczs).Another Fox noir "BOOMERANG" will be released the same day.TO me "BOOMERANR" is not up to the same level as the other two.Movie Review: No Way Out
Summary: 5 Stars
A tense, hard-hitting social drama that earned an Oscar for Best Screenplay in 1950, Mankiewicz's pioneering film looks squarely at the ramifications of racial hostility while keeping audiences on the edge of their seat. Poitier is magnificent in his debut role, the epitome of coolheadedness and quiet self-regard, while Widmark seethes in a typically explosive role. Mankiewicz builds suspense inside and outside the hospital, and the effect is riveting. Keep an eye out for actors/civil-rights activists Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, playing Luther's brother and sister-in-law in a tandem debut. A potent powder keg of a film that hasn't lost its bite--or its relevance.