This
film is based on the novel The Brick Foxhole by ex-Marine Richard Brooks. Brooks later became a film writer and
the director of Elmer Gantry and In Cold Blood. The story is told in a series of flashbacks from different
points of view. A group of
recently returned but demobilized soldiers are hanging around New York after WWII. They spend a lot of time at their hotel and in bars or coffee shops.
Homicide Captain Finlay is investigating the beating death of a Jewish
man, Joseph Samuels. He believes
one of the soldiers met Samuels in one of these bars. This man followed Samuels home and
then beat him because of a hatred for Jews.
I
found it difficult to keep track of the soldiers. Even the actors are three Robert’s? There is also a lot of back and forth
with the flashback scenes. Captain
Finlay is a completely different type of role for Robert Young who later starred
in the television series Father Knows Best. He played Jim Anderson, a General Insurance agent in the
Midwest with a wife and three children.
3* (This movie is OK)
86
min, Crime directed by Edward Dmytryk with Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, Robert
Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly, Sam Levene, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie,
George Cooper, Richard Benedict, Tom Keene, William Phipps.
Note: Imdb 7.4 out of 10, 79% critic 75%
audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 4.2* out of 5* with 52 reviews.
Special
Note: This film earned five
Academy Award nominations despite its extremely low budget for this time period
of $550,000. It was also shot in only
20 day with 20 scenes filmed per day.
The director shot 140 scenes during a 6 ½ hour daily schedule.
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