Publisher: CinemaSerf July 26, 2024
"Johnny" (Don Murray) has returned from the Korean war to pregnant wide "Celia" (Eva Marie Saint) and together with his sometimes quite wayward brother "Polo" (Anthony Franciosa) tries to make a go of things in New York. It's the arrival of the boy's father (Lloyd Nolan) that seems to set the cat amongst the pigeons as he is looking for some money he lent one of them so he can complete a property deal in Florida. Well, there's not a penny in the pot and he demands to know why. Initially you might think it's "Polo" who is the root of the problem, but quickly we are introduced to "Mother" (Henry Silva) and his drug peddling goons and discover that it's "Johnny" who has a problem that is spiralling menacingly out of control. It's a secret the brothers share, but not the only secret in the story and as we progress the intensity of conflict and old grudges only increases amongst this family grappling with the effects of despair and fear. Murray and an admittedly emotive effort from Marie Saint my claim top billing, but it was actually Nolan who played the pivotal role here. Not without demons of his own, his portrayal of this confused and betrayed paternal character adds quite a bit to the sense of embarrassment and shame felt by just about everyone. Bernard Herrmann's instantly recognisable score is over-used, I thought - all too often used to augment a tension that could maybe have been done better by a stronger Murray and a more penetrative script. That said, though, this is a grittily well delivered illustration of a man abandoned by the state after his military usefulness was over and picked up by mercenary addict-fuelling hoodlums with little human decency.