Director: Fritz Lang
Year Released: 1953
Rating: 2.0
Glenn Ford, the most honest cop to ever exist (and who has the most perfect marriage to the most perfect woman - she finishes his sentences, shares a cigarette with him, sips his beer), has his life upturned when he gets involved in a bizarre "suicide" case that, even after watching the picture go through an elaborate explanation to tie it all together, I still couldn't figure out. It's also quite manipulative: the creation of a "perfect marriage" with a "perfect home" on limited pay forces you to sympathize with Ford no matter what he does to get the baddies (who are rich, suave and fast talking; their big houses storing their "insecure egos") - even break the rules himself - because vengeance, here, is portrayed as a tolerable action if the proper circumstances arise. It also exonerates Ford of all his off-duty harassment and hell bent detective work - the characters take care of the dirty work for him, offing each other while he watches, untainted and pristine (nary a bullet leaves the chamber of the gun which he bought for himself). Everything is presented as being black or white - either you are corrupt or you are not - and completely self-righteous. Not the worst of its kind - there are some awful police procedurals/revenge pictures out there - but hardly the best; when scalding coffee is used not once, but twice as an actual weapon, you know someone's trying too hard.
