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Nice and well paced B thriller , one of those in which you enjoy the way the directors manage to overcome the obvious script and budget limitations to create a personal piece of work , as much as the film itself . It happened in the past and still happens today , what could have turned into a routine movie it's saved by an skilled director who is able to add some spark to what otherwise could be an unremarkable film

Lerner was an absolute expert on this task and It's quite appealing to see this in action and how he manages to create and maintain the tension throughout this film . Literally he builds it out from nothing , no budget and based on a script that you probably came across on a dozen of movies before . All action and trouble comes from an small cylinder allegedly containing heroine worth 1 million USD , which has been stolen by a convict during his prison break . It contains a highly radioactive material instead which causes the alarm and the relentless pursuit of the convict .

Don't get any wrong impression , this is a classic man on the run B thriller , and as such there are some incongruences but mostly it's filmed imaginatively enough to offset the lack of budget and keep the interest It can be compared to what happened with Budd Boetticher , both get some attention when they received some props from Scorssesse himself , so that shed some light to their careers which thus far have been quite neglected by the general public.

This film begins with a guy breaking out of prison. This man (Vince Edwards) is incredibly ruthless--even for an escaped prisoner. He kills several folks throughout the film--such as a prison guard, an innocent guy in a car and several others. This coldness really was excellent--making the character very compelling.

There is a strange (and VERY unbelievable twist). On his way out of prison, he stole what he THOUGHT was heroin from the infirmary--and he plans on selling it and making a fortune. However, it's actually a super-radioactive substance and if it's released from its steel case, it could kill thousands. Now what would heroin or super-radioactive stuff be doing in a prison in the first place?! I have no idea and it IS a huge plot problem. However, because the rest of the film is so good, it's something you can overlook. Taut--with great music and tense moments. The DVD case says it's film noir--and it is definitely noir-ish. Worth seeing.

When I was five years old I developed a pain in my stomach. The pain would come and go for a few days. During the last afternoon of day camp, the pains got worse. The Nurse called my Mom as I began to wail in pain. The sharp pangs against my stomach wall were excruciating. They rushed me to the hospital. The Doctors examined me and asked if I ingested anything? They gave me sedative and took my blood, which became an issue. I finally let them prick my finger. The Nurse asked me what I like to do and I said to her that I enjoy playing in the sand, building castles and roads and such. The nurse's eyes open wide as if I solved the world problems. Along the genre of film noir despite the year, this movie is an excellent example of a period piece. Pre- Kennedy era Los Angeles with the cars and wardrobe of a bygone era our main Character Vince Edwards is on the run, Hiding holding a canister of death and unbeknownst to himself, leaving a trail of (rads) radiation and illness to whomever he comes in contact with. The few that he physically murders are the lucky ones; the alternative would be a slow cancerous death. Film plot will hold your interest. You are curious, wondering how long our star crook can hang on. Jerry Goldsmith's jazzy music adds to the flavor of the film. All in all Vince Edwards s shows his range of acting skill as a heavy as a race against time is essential in returning the deadly canister and sparing a city. This movie will hold your interest. The hook here is how long would our drug dealing convict hold on until the radiation from the cannister gets the better of him. This film reminded me of the pains in my stomach that happened more frequently as the days went on. I didn't know that a tape worm was growing inside of me and had to be addressed by a physician, but I was only 6 years old. Our Vince Ryker character didn't realize he was getting weaker by the hour.

Pulpy, wildly overwrought, but entertaining co-feature from Columbia has a pre-"Ben Casey" Vince Edwards starring as a convict who breaks out of San Quentin with a container he thinks is "a pound of 100% snow", but instead of heroin it's actually radioactive Cobalt 60 and any exposure could decimate Los Angeles. Not a compact thriller (even at 75 minutes!), this suspense film is full of behind-the-wheel montages and bits of generic police business. Edwards smolders like a reckless mad-dog stud, yet when he's required to disguise himself as a businessman with glasses, he's adept and convincing at this transition. The other actors in the cast aren't as versatile, and the mechanical writing and directing certainly doesn't liven them up (they're all stock figures, though Vince's girlfriend does get in a few funny wisecracks down at the police station). Photographed by Lucien Ballard, the movie has a great, gritty look full of L.A.'s neighborhoods and back streets, and the tension does manage to build successfully even though just about everything in the picture is second-rate. **1/2 from ****

City of Fear is directed by Irving Lerner and stars Vince Edwards, Lyle Talbot, John Archer and Steven Ritch. The latter of which co-wrote the screenplay with Robert Dillon. Music is scored by Jerry Goldsmith and cinematography by Lucien Ballard.

"Last night a convict by the name of Vince Ryker escaped from San Quentin. After stealing what he believed to contain a pound of pure heroin ..... does not contain heroin, it contains Cobalt-60 in granular form."

Cheap, compact but very effective "B" thriller from the tail end of the first noir cycle, City of Fear thrives on sweaty paranoia played out amongst Los Angeles locations. It's a ticking time bomb structure, convict man thinks he has a gold mine in his hands but actually holds something that is killing him by the hour. This lets in the police procedural aspects as the cops and scientists try to locate convict man and his radiation container. Urgent! Not only to save the convicts life, but also the city from probable disaster!

OK, the science does not add up, nor does the fact that convict man never once gets to open the container to inspect his supposed golden haul! But the claustrophobic feel is high and the sense of doom married up to the helplessness of the protagonist does bring it into the noir universe. Ballard photographing is always a plus, though he does not get to show his considerable talents that much here, while Goldsmith, in one of his first musical scoring assignments, couples dramatic thrusts with jazzy reflections to great effect. Edwards (Murder by Contract) makes for a good noir loser. 7/10