Edge of the City
Director: Martin Ritt
Year Released: 1957
Rating: 1.5
Obvious take on On the Waterfront and lower-class corruption; John Cassavetes, on the run from The Man, makes friends with Sidney Poitier and enemies with a racist Jack Warden. On autopilot most of the way, the only real tension coming up when one-sided Warden shows up, spouting racial remarks or being generally mean-spirited - otherwise it’s mostly Cassavetes brooding and the film trying to be sneaky with its character ‘revelations’. Could have used some major fleshing out (the ninety minute running time is too compressed and insufficient), and I can only wonder how John the director would have tinkered with the screenplay.
