La Rue de la mort

It's always fun to watch Farley Granger sweat bullets over a screw-up. This time the part-time letter carrier stumbles upon a quick way to pick up a couple of hundred bucks so that his pregnant wife can have all the good things in life, namely a private room at the hospital. When he ends up with a bit more cash than he bargains for, he begins to behave every bit as stupidly and nonsensically as you would expect him to. Anthony Mann skillfully keeps the usual suspect noir elements in the mix. Jean Hagen plays the saloon singer who prefers to drink her meals at the improbable club Les Artistes. James Craig plays the big lug with a shady past and the police detectives including the frog throated Charles McGraw have plenty of colorful characters to question. But it's Farley Granger who keeps the ball rolling. You never know what dumb move he'll make next.

Plot holes aside and not having to mind watching Farley Granger floundering rather pathetically, this is one heck of a noir. Worth it just for the location shooting. Tremendous shots of 50s New York City, probably as good as any archive material and if the plot verges on the silliness, everybody gives it their all. Great performances from the leads to the lowliest support. Much of that must be down to Mann and whether it was decided to use so much location shooting because of the budget or not it is truly awe inspiring from those opening aerial shots, the fantastic market area and the amazing chase through the streets at the end. So, not the most attention grabbing plot but still great viewing.

So who does impulsive thief and part-time mail carrier Joe Norson (Granger) entrust with the $30,000 he's just stolen? Why that well-known paragon of virtue, the friendly neighborhood barkeep, of course. Then, when the latter disappears, a lot richer, guess what-- Joe is surprised! Let's hope the baby his wife just delivered got her genes instead of his. Now Joe gets to chase after the money before either the cops or the crooks get him first. Frankly, my money's on the crooks who certainly know how to surprise us with a broken-down lounge singer (Hagen). But then this is Production Code 1950 with the sweetfaced Granger, so better bet on the kid.

This is Dore Schary's MGM playing catch-up with post-war noir, and they've hired the best— director Anthony Mann. That means the New York street scene never looked grittier, nor the great stone canyons more threatening. And that car chase down empty city corridors looks downright science-fiction eerie. Too bad they've saddled Mann with boring cops and a bad guy (Craig) about as scary as a TV salesman. And was there ever an actress whose sheer sweetness could melt the screen faster than O'Donnell. Together with the artless Granger, Mann's tough-guy cynicism never stood a chance. The visuals tell one story; the characters another. This is hard-shell noir with the softest of cores, but will still keep you stapled to the screen.

This is a pretty good film noir that, happily, was released recently on DVD, giving us fans of this genre another movie to enjoy. It had one of the best noir directors, too: Anthony Mann, who always makes sure we get some great visuals. This is no exception, with good angles, shadows and light and a great big-city feel of New York.

Along the way, we get a not-untypical noirish tale of an basically-good guy who makes a dumb move and pays for his sins even after his conscience gets the best of him and he tries to atone. This winds up to be a story of a man chasing the real crooks, while the crooks and the police chase him! They still make films with these kind of plots and they are almost always interesting.

Farley Granger does a fine job in the lead as the dupe, "Joe Norson," who is too weak to pass up easy money and pays for it. Cathy O'Donnell is his wife and gets second billing but she really doesn't have that big a role. A bunch of other actors really share "supporting cast" status as Granger rules the roost here, lines-wise. For me, it was strange seeing James Craig as the "heavy." I mainly know him from totally opposite, All-American characters in films like "The Human Comedy" and "Our Vines Have Tender Grapes." Here, he's a viscous thug.

The city of New York might be the real second star of this film. There are many shots of it and its skyscrapers, from above and street level looking up. I love those old cars, too!

Farley Granger dominates this urban crime drama about a man named Joe Norson, a down-on-his-luck mailman who happens on to a wad of cash, and impulsively steals it, not knowing that the money is connected to the murder of a well-known woman. Sensing his mistake, Joe tries to straighten out the situation, but does all the wrong things. In the process, he gets mixed up with thugs. It's Joe's choices that propel the plot.

More than anything else, "Side Street" is a character study of Joe, described by the film's narrator as: "no hero, no criminal, just human like all of us, weak like some of us, foolish like most of us". He's basically a good guy. But he gets tempted. When he yields to the temptation to steal, his whole world unravels.

As with 1940s noir crime dramas, all the characters in "Side Street" seem desperate, frightened, and unhappy. They're like rats in a maze. And the film's setting in lower Manhattan really accentuates that boxed in, trapped, claustrophobic feeling.

The B&W cinematography is excellent. From wide shots to close-ups, from low-angle to very high-angle, the variety of camera shots keeps the visuals interesting. Overhead shots of Manhattan at the beginning are among the best I have seen for such an old movie. Lighting is noir-based, consistent with crime films of that era.

My only complaint is that some of the secondary characters are a tad difficult to keep track of, a fault of the script. But a second viewing clears things up.

Beautifully photographed on location in lower Manhattan with its maze of narrow side streets, "Side Street" is a well-made film with an interesting story about a regular guy, trapped in a literal maze between tall buildings and a thematic maze of difficult choices. Farley Granger gives a fine performance, as does Cathy O'Donnell, his long-suffering wife.