rodrig58 This movie is excellent first of all due to Anthony Quinn, in my opinion, one of the best actors of all time. One year after he was Zampanò in Fellini's "La Strada" and 10 years before being Zorba in Cacoyannis' "Zorba the Greek", the best roles in his impressive career, Quinn is here a gangster, Phil Regal. The way he lives this character is extraordinary. We have in the film also the great and unique Anne Bancroft, very young here, in the role of Regal's sister. And she is super good. Just like Farley Granger, as a small gangster-killer, he is impeccable too. A young Peter Graves is also doing a good job. In a small role, the future great Lee Van Cleef. Else Neft, in the role of Regal-Quinn's mother, is delicious. Back to Anthony Quinn, he is the only one, together with the Italian Gian Maria Volontè, who give me the greatest intellectual and artistic pleasure, watching them every time in any movie they played. Both of them are over Pacino, De Niro, Brando, Nicholson, Olivier and a few others. They are the best of the best!

dougdoepke The acting makes the movie, especially gang boss Regal (Quinn) and his naive sister Rosalie (Bancroft). Regal may be a ruthless racketeer outside his family, but inside, he's a protective pussycat. That is, until cheap Lothario Bradna (Granger) first knocks-up Rosalie and then philanders after Regal forces him to marry her. And that's after Regal gets him off a murder-one rap so the irresponsible kid can do the right thing. Now, feeling betrayed, Regal's really angry, so we know Bradna's in for even worse trouble. The movie's got some twists and turns, not all being very plausible. But that's okay because Quinn delivers a scary and riveting performance. The actor's just back from Italy where he starred in the powerful classic La Strada (1954). So maybe he was trying to show Hollywood a thing or two since he delivers a lot more than the role requires. Then there's Bancroft, already a magnetic personality, and on her way to an Oscar-studded career. Looks to me like the producers spent their money on the cast and not on the visuals that are pretty bland and bare-bones. But then the supporting cast is full of familiar faces, especially up-and-comers like Van Cleef and Graves, along with great vets like Bissell and Flavin.Five-years earlier and I expect the film would have been straight noir, without the moralizing voice-over. But this is the McCarthy Cold War period, so there can't be any lingering ambiguity. Still, it's a fairly gritty little film with a compelling central performance that deserves better than near- total Hollywood obscurity, despite the titillating title.

filmalamosa Moralizing 50s gritty crime movie. I like the pure noir versions better.Anthony Quinn is a big time gangster he protects and adores his family. His sister gets knocked up by a good looking hood who is on death row. Quinn gets him off on condition he marry his sister and walk the straight and narrow; but Nikki (the hood) doesn't do the straight life well and starts to stray and abuse his wife.Quinn gets rid of him by framing him for murder and gets him the death sentence. But enter a newsreporter who has a thing for the sister and the police get a crack that allow them to go after Quinn.It is OK, I don't like the socially relevant stuff (Quinn's college were the rough streets of Brooklyn) it was the beginning of the PC stuff we are deluged with today.I gave it a 4 for that reason other wise it would have gotten a 6.

zetes A rather silly, though not exactly unentertaining, noir. Anthony Quinn stars as a big-time gangster who discovers his sister (Anne Bancroft) is pregnant. The catch? The guy who did it (Farley Granger) is now on death row. Quinn won't let his sister's kid be born a bastard, so he's goes about intimidating the witnesses to Granger's crime and gets him a retrial. It works (the justice system was even more screwed up back then than it is now, apparently), but, even though he's now married to Bancroft and should be uber-grateful to Quinn for springing him, Granger is still kind of a douchebag, treating poor Bancroft like crap, smacking her around and cheating on her and stuff. This, of course, does not please Quinn whatsoever. Peter Graves also co-stars as a newspaper man who also has a thing for Bancroft. Quinn is really good in the film, but it's not one that plays to Granger's strengths. He's best as a nervous type, like in Rope, Strangers on a Train and Edge of Doom. He's not a good tough guy. This can also be found on Netflix Instant.