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The Sellout (1952) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.2/10   99 votes
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Director:
Gerald Mayer
Writers:
Charles Palmer (writer)
Matthew Rapf (story)
Contact:
View company contact information for The Sellout on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
18 February 1953 (France) more
Genre:
Crime | Drama more
Tagline:
How much does it take for a Woman to Sellout her Man?
Plot:
Big-city newspaper Editor Haven D. Allridge starts a crusade to smash corrupt small-town sheriff Burke... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
User Comments:
Conflicts of Interest more (6 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Walter Pidgeon ... Haven D. Allridge
John Hodiak ... Charles 'Chick' Johnson
Audrey Totter ... Cleo Bethel
Paula Raymond ... Peggy Stauton
Thomas Gomez ... Sherrif Kellwin C. 'Casey' Burke
Cameron Mitchell ... Randloph 'Randy' Stauton

Karl Malden ... Capt. Buck Maxwell
Everett Sloane ... Nelson S. Tarsson
Jonathan Cott ... Deputy Edward 'Ned' Grayton
Frank Cady ... Bennie Amboy
Hugh Sanders ... Judge Neeler
Griff Barnett ... Atty. General J. R. Morrison
Burt Mustin ... Elk M. Ludens
Whit Bissell ... Wilfred Jackson
Roy Engel ... Sam F. Slaper
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
83 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Certification:
USA:Approved (PCA #15484)
Company:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) more

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User Comments

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful.
Conflicts of Interest, 22 March 2006
6/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

The Sellout is a good B picture crime drama out of MGM using a solid heaping helping of their B picture contract players.

Newspaper editor Walter Pigeon and a friend Whit Bissell get caught up in a speedtrap in the rural part of the county they reside in. Given the Code was in place in 1951, I'm sure they would have been brutalized far more graphically in the jail of Thomas Gomez the corrupt sheriff of the county. Still and all it's enough to fill Pigeon with a firm resolve to get Gomez. Even without the help of local prosecutor Cameron Mitchell who is Pigeon's son-in-law.

But a crusading special prosecutor from the State Attorney General and an honest city cop played by John Hodiak and Karl Malden respectively get into the picture due to Pigeon's hard hitting articles. There's far more than a speedtrap involved. Then Pigeon's ardor suddenly cools.

I think that anyone who's seen a lot of movies can figure the ending out from here. But these are a good group of some of the best players around. One other reviewer mentioned that Audrey Totter's role as a woman of easy virtue is left up in the air. I would guess the editors had more to do with it than anything else.

Thomas Gomez delivers the best performance in the film. He's a viciously evil man and he drives his corrupt lawyer Everett Sloane crazy. Sloane tries very hard to fix things without violence or crudity. But Gomez just can't be controlled.

It's a good film, very much like The Phoenix City Story that would come along a few years later.

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