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In the Citadel Film series book on The Films Of James Mason, Mason himself said that he was never told by viewers that they saw this film or was ever questioned about it. I guess that One Way Street might be overlooked in the big budget films that would shortly follow in his career. That's a pity because this one is a good, but fatalistic noir film, something along the lines of Odd Man Out.

In One Way Street Mason is a doctor whose practice is on the wrong side of the law, patching up criminals and not reporting about it. We're never told brought him to this because no one starts this way in the field of medicine.

While on a house call to Dan Duryea's mob after they've pulled a heist, Duryea rides Mason once too often and through a rather ingenious bluff he winds up stealing the loot from a robbery the gang just pulled off. Not only that, he winds up stealing Marta Toren away from Duryea so Dan has two reasons for going after him.

Mason and Toren have to land in a remote village in Mexico when the plane they've chartered develops engine trouble. Even a defrocked doctor is welcome among these people where Mason and Toren settle and start to enjoy life a little, but life and the past do catch up.

Duryea's henchmen include William Conrad, King Donovan, and Jack Elam who are as scurvy a lot as you'll find. Basil Ruysdael who is always an authority figure of some kind is fine as the local priest at the village where Mason and Toren are staying. Look fast or you'll miss Rock Hudson in a bit role as a truckdriver with one line in the film.

Marta Toren who hoped to succeed both Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman as a cinema sensation from Sweden died tragically young. She never broke into A pictures in America, but she was for me one of the most beautiful women the big screen ever saw.

If your genre is noir you cannot go wrong with One Way Street.

I quite enjoyed James Mason's performance here as the calculating "Dr. Matson". He is frequently summoned to treat the hoodlums of gangster "Wheeler" (Dan Duryea) and during one such visit espies a bag, similar to his own, that contains $200,000 in stolen loot. After a bit of macho banter with his patient, he picks up the bag and makes for the door. He has given the boss some pills and any interference will prevent him from getting the antidote! This is the moment that moll "Laura" (Märta Torén) has been waiting for and she decides to abscond with the doctor. Their escape plan doesn't quite go to plan, though - a car and a plane accident - before they find themselves in a small town where his skills and their burgeoning love start to make them wonder if their master plan is still the best one. Meantime, though very much on the back burner, the mobsters are determined to avenge themselves on both of them. It does rather run out of steam with half an hour to go, and though the ending is actually quite fitting it was all just a little bit rushed and, I felt, frustrating! Still, there's some chemistry between the two and Basil Ruysdael's priest, a sick horse and some really lightweight banditos all play to the story quite well too. You'll probably not recall it afterwards, but it's a bit different.

This movie was a joy to watch and James Mason really shines in his role as well as Dan Duryea, and William Conrad. I loved every minute until the very end which to me was so senseless. I won't give it away but this film would have been a ten out of ten had it not been for this mistake. It is still a very entertaining film.

One Way Street opens beautifully. Sirens shriek through the Los Angeles nightscape while, from the window of an apartment building, an elegant woman (Marta Toren) smokes as she watches them disappear. She reports her observations to Dan Duryea, who has just masterminded a big heist. One of his lieutenants (William Conrad), however, has taken a bullet, which gang-sawbones James Mason is summoned to extract. He does so, meanwhile launching a ploy by which he departs not only with all the loot but with Toren – Duryea's moll. Although fate almost deflects their escape, they finally cross the border to Mexico.

And here the movie settles in for a long siesta. Mason and Toren find themselves in a primitive village where Mason's medical skills are pressed into service (he cures a horse but can't save a little girl). There's plenty of warmed-over wisdom issuing from an itinerant priest (Basil Ruysdael) and plenty of danger from bandidos who keep cropping up, swigging mezcal while wiping their lips with the backs of their hands and eying Toren up, down and sideways. Despite these distractions, she seems to like it there and wants to stay, but Mason wants to press on to Mexico City (and their divergent goals and low-key temperaments serve to keep the romance distinctly cool).

This snooze is interrupted a couple of times by cuts back to Los Angeles, where Duryea and Conrad are bent on recouping the money – and on revenge. But only when Mason returns to have a face-to-face reckoning with Duryea does the movie spring back to life. And in a rhyme of its earlier, unexpected intervention, fate proves that it always has the last word.

One Way Street was the first feature in English by the Argentinian-born director Hugo Fregonese, who stayed in Hollywood long enough to churn out a few westerns and genre-pictures (Man In The Attic, one of the many versions of The Lodger was his work). From the bookends that open and close One Way Street, he had a feel for the look and pace of film noir, but the thick volume of Mexican folklore they surround turns out to be a not very film-worthy property.

The Noir genre occasionally crossed the Mexico's frontier where the story takes place, but mostly of time with a bunch of American characters with a few Mexicans only, usually as bit players, I mean part of the backdrop so to speak, in One Way Street it's totally opposite, the producers used a massive of Mexican on the cast as secondary roles as few times, to the point to be called as Noir-Spaghetti by two key reasons, firstly by Hugo Fregonese on direction and lastly countless Mexicans on supporting casting, attached on a small Mexican Pueblo, it's a little intro over this thematic an unusual Noir picture.

The plot summarized consist in a post robbery at Los Angeles's apartment where the gang boss John Wheeler (Dan Duryea) is misleading by the cunning Dr. Frank Matson (James Mason) ends up stolen a bo.oty of 200.000 dollars cash and slipping away of the town bring together Wheeler's gorgeous escort girl Laura Thorsen (Martha Toren) and heading by small plane to Mexico City, nonetheless by gas pump's failure the pilot has been forced to landing in rural area, meanwhile expecting a pump's repairs in a weak or so they meeting a local friendly Father Moreno (Basil Ruysdael) who lodges them in nearby warm pueblo.

Soon the long awaiting allowing for to embittered Doctor a possibility to return in clinical practice again, even treating a sick mule, after a successful healing he turns your eyes to the careless people in town, often sponsored by the enthusiastic Father, backing on a pleasant way plenty, in other hand the charming Laura also finally figures out an easy mind in that peaceable village insofar has in touch with a welcoming smooth people, both finally get together in an veritable affair at last, thus wondering a quiet life there Dr. Frank is willing to be back the stolen money to easy the angry Wheeler, aiming for keep there forever in peace.

Too many posted here countless complains concerning the fatalist outcome, whereof I don't agree whatsoever, the storyline is full of holes as the brainer Boss Wheeler has been deceived by an implausible gimmick, he seems not so smart as he at the outset thought, over an British character to fill in this role I suppose that would be an native American guy could fits better than James Mason surely, anyway an fine entertainment at all.

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.