A two bit thief (Mature) puts his family in untold danger when the district attorney convinces him to squeal on a fellow inmate at Sing Sing: the homicidal psychopath will stop at nothing to gain revenge. Academy Award Nominations: Best Supporting Actor--Richard Widmark, Best Original Story.

Two-time loser Nick Bianco is caught during an armed robbery and pressured by the Assistant District Attorney to squeal on his cohorts. Nick refuses, but after his wife commits suicide and his daughters are put in an orphanage, he relents and goes to work for the prosecutor. He gets paroled and straightens out his life, but when the D.A. needs him to roll over on Tommy Udo, Nick finds he has to deal with the psychopathic killer himself.

Richard Widmark's screen debut.

Film opens with the notice "All scenes in this motion picture, both exterior and interior, were photographed in the State of New York on the actual locale associated with the story."

Excerpt: "Nick Bianco hadn't worked for a year. He had a record, a prison record. They say it shouldn't count against you. But when Nick tried to get a job, the same thing happened... So this is how Nick went Christmas shopping for his kids." (Opening narration, as Nick prepares to pull an armed robbery)

"I wouldn't give you the skin off a grape." (Tommy Udo to Assistant District Attorney D'Angelo)

"Your side of the fence is almost as dirty as mine." (Convict Nick Bianco, in the process of making a deal with Assistant District Attorney D'Angelo).

"I'm askin' you: where's that squealin' son of yours?" (Tommy Udo to Rizzo's wheelchair-bound mother, just before he pushes her down the stairs)

DVD Features:

Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
Mono - Spanish, English
Stereo - English
Subtitles - English, Spanish - Optional
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary: Alain Silver, James Ursini - Film Historians
Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer
Text/Photo Galleries:
Stills/Photos

Victor Mature: American Actor
Richard Widmark: American Actor/Producer
Brian Donlevy: American Actor
Coleen Gray: American Actress
Karl Malden: American Actor, ON THE WATERFRONT (1954), A STREETCAR NAMED
Taylor Holmes: American Character Actor
Howard Smith: Actor, BON VOYAGE!
Anthony Ross: Actor/"Country Girl"

Henry Hathaway: American Director

Fred Kohlmar: American Producer

Ben Hecht: American Author/Screenwriter
Charles Lederer: American Screenwriter/Director

David Buttolph: American Composer/B. 1902

J. Watson Webb: Editor

"This is quintessential film noir, hardboiled, vicious but with pathos and lyricism too."
"...One of the best photographed examples of postwar 20th Century-Fox film noir..."
"Udo pushing a wheelchair-bound old lady down the stairs -- one of the most iconic moments in all noir -- is still chilling." -- Grade: B+
5 stars out of 5 -- "Richard Widmark stole movie....Widmark plays evil like be-bop, becoming an eternal dark icon..."