That's right, this is one movie where the "killer" in this is not one dimensional by any means and you may feel conflicting feelings for him - Poole, played by Wendell Scott.
One irony in this movie's title - the FIRST killer in this is not Leon Poole, but the officer who shot his wife - Sergeant Sam Wagner, played by Joseph Cotten.
The killer I have sympathy for in this is not Cotten's character, but Corey's, Poole.
Poole's wife is shot when these over-zealous cops are going after bank robbers, and whatshisface - I have to look this up, again - Sam Wagner shoots her by accident.
He (Wagner) shows remorse right away; Poole doesn't fly into a rage as would be customary in such an event, in a movie; he instead is in shock, the love of his life gone, the one person who gave him strength, dead - he just says "Don't you see how wrong it was to kill her?" - basically, a stunned, grieving, non-violent statement of truth. So then we see Wagner sad and handing the gun over to another officer before leaving.
At the trial, Poole states he's going to get even with him. It's really hard to say just how fantastic Wendell Corey IS in this movie. The acting by all is very good to great, but Corey is tremendous.
Poole gets a thirty year sentence (interesting - 30 years for robbing a bank, while the police officer who kills the innocent wife, merely gets his hands figuratively slapped). He is given, after over a couple years sentence (I think it was 2 and a half), the chance at an early release, starting with being transferred to working on an Honor farm.
He takes the first chance to escape from there, killing a guard played by Stanley Adams, who was driving him.
That truck would clearly not do so he goes and kills a farmer and steals his truck - and his clothes.
Poole's appearance in this is an important factor in his behavior; the world at large has mocked him; at the beginning of the movie, his former sergeant, Otto Flanders, called him "Foggy" - an incredibly insulting nickname that he used during Poole's military time, which had the whole outfit making fun of him whenever they spoke to him. Thanks a lot, Sergeant.
But before his wife got killed, Poole was able to keep taking the humiliating treatment; afterward, he just snapped. He stopped suppressing his feelings.
And with that - the next stop on our now-killer's itinerary is the home of the sergeant. Poole needs food - badly. Sergeant's wife is there - terrified. He demands food. Sergeant comes home, tells Poole he's outnumbered if he continues, and, holding a milk bottle, goes on about how HE could take him down if he just let down his guard for one second - and they all have guns, the men waiting for him. He kills Sergeant whatshisface. He says afterward, "What else could I do?" The wife has fainted. He leaves with her raincoat.
Now comes where the movie is less than a ten for me; Wagner's wife in this, who Poole is after to kill, because he wants Wagner to feel exactly as he did - a wife for a wife.
This part gets really strange (as if it wasn't enough); why are the men who are watching Poole across the street, where they can barely be sure who they're identifying, instead of being in the house nearby where Wagner's STUPID wife Lila, played by Rhonda Fleming, is coming to?
And more so, WHY in the world is she going there?!?? She has no brains. Shows this whole "you can't tell me what to do" attitude, and basically is walking into getting herself killed.
Meanwhile we've got unshaven, bespectacled Poole following her, right behind her, in a woman's coat.
I want to make it clear that although I had sympathy for Poole in regards to what happened to his wife (who he says at one point was the one person who did not make fun of him, who believed in him, who loved him), I do not support his killing of the guard, or the farmer. (I could care less about his bullying sergeant - Good riddance) But here we have the most stupid person in the movie, Wagner's wife Lila.
I have to agree with one review that says the ending would have been much better if she had been killed and then Poole killed, with him saying "Now you know how it feels" to Wagner, instead of just him being gunned down by the bunch of cops across the street. That would have been fantastic. Lila is a character that very little is shown behind what makes her run; she seems quite vapid, just a bosomy airhead, no brains, easily prone to letting emotion run her; a child, basically. If she had been killed it would have been better.
Overall a really excellent movie despite the ending (which makes this not a perfect ten of a movie). The production on this all-around is great; a shame about the impossible-to-explain parts near and at the end.
This movie has someone who was ridiculed too much, and then had the only thing in his wife taken from him - and when set on revenge, he plays the character in an amazing manner.
This deserves much higher than the rating it has on here, and is definitely worth seeing for any fans of crime dramas, and film noirs.
One irony in this movie's title - the FIRST killer in this is not Leon Poole, but the officer who shot his wife - Sergeant Sam Wagner, played by Joseph Cotten.
The killer I have sympathy for in this is not Cotten's character, but Corey's, Poole.
Poole's wife is shot when these over-zealous cops are going after bank robbers, and whatshisface - I have to look this up, again - Sam Wagner shoots her by accident.
He (Wagner) shows remorse right away; Poole doesn't fly into a rage as would be customary in such an event, in a movie; he instead is in shock, the love of his life gone, the one person who gave him strength, dead - he just says "Don't you see how wrong it was to kill her?" - basically, a stunned, grieving, non-violent statement of truth. So then we see Wagner sad and handing the gun over to another officer before leaving.
At the trial, Poole states he's going to get even with him. It's really hard to say just how fantastic Wendell Corey IS in this movie. The acting by all is very good to great, but Corey is tremendous.
Poole gets a thirty year sentence (interesting - 30 years for robbing a bank, while the police officer who kills the innocent wife, merely gets his hands figuratively slapped). He is given, after over a couple years sentence (I think it was 2 and a half), the chance at an early release, starting with being transferred to working on an Honor farm.
He takes the first chance to escape from there, killing a guard played by Stanley Adams, who was driving him.
That truck would clearly not do so he goes and kills a farmer and steals his truck - and his clothes.
Poole's appearance in this is an important factor in his behavior; the world at large has mocked him; at the beginning of the movie, his former sergeant, Otto Flanders, called him "Foggy" - an incredibly insulting nickname that he used during Poole's military time, which had the whole outfit making fun of him whenever they spoke to him. Thanks a lot, Sergeant.
But before his wife got killed, Poole was able to keep taking the humiliating treatment; afterward, he just snapped. He stopped suppressing his feelings.
And with that - the next stop on our now-killer's itinerary is the home of the sergeant. Poole needs food - badly. Sergeant's wife is there - terrified. He demands food. Sergeant comes home, tells Poole he's outnumbered if he continues, and, holding a milk bottle, goes on about how HE could take him down if he just let down his guard for one second - and they all have guns, the men waiting for him. He kills Sergeant whatshisface. He says afterward, "What else could I do?" The wife has fainted. He leaves with her raincoat.
Now comes where the movie is less than a ten for me; Wagner's wife in this, who Poole is after to kill, because he wants Wagner to feel exactly as he did - a wife for a wife.
This part gets really strange (as if it wasn't enough); why are the men who are watching Poole across the street, where they can barely be sure who they're identifying, instead of being in the house nearby where Wagner's STUPID wife Lila, played by Rhonda Fleming, is coming to?
And more so, WHY in the world is she going there?!?? She has no brains. Shows this whole "you can't tell me what to do" attitude, and basically is walking into getting herself killed.
Meanwhile we've got unshaven, bespectacled Poole following her, right behind her, in a woman's coat.
I want to make it clear that although I had sympathy for Poole in regards to what happened to his wife (who he says at one point was the one person who did not make fun of him, who believed in him, who loved him), I do not support his killing of the guard, or the farmer. (I could care less about his bullying sergeant - Good riddance) But here we have the most stupid person in the movie, Wagner's wife Lila.
I have to agree with one review that says the ending would have been much better if she had been killed and then Poole killed, with him saying "Now you know how it feels" to Wagner, instead of just him being gunned down by the bunch of cops across the street. That would have been fantastic. Lila is a character that very little is shown behind what makes her run; she seems quite vapid, just a bosomy airhead, no brains, easily prone to letting emotion run her; a child, basically. If she had been killed it would have been better.
Overall a really excellent movie despite the ending (which makes this not a perfect ten of a movie). The production on this all-around is great; a shame about the impossible-to-explain parts near and at the end.
This movie has someone who was ridiculed too much, and then had the only thing in his wife taken from him - and when set on revenge, he plays the character in an amazing manner.
This deserves much higher than the rating it has on here, and is definitely worth seeing for any fans of crime dramas, and film noirs.