No Way Out (1950)

Nominated for the 1950 Oscar® for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay, this intense drama about racial hatred pulls no punches. When a white patient in a hospital dies under the care of a black intern (Sidney Poitier), the victim?s racist brother (Richard Widmark) seeks to destroy the doctor?s career. Although the hospital?s idealistic Chief Resident (Stephen McNally) tries to diffuse the escalating tension, the victim?s ex-wife (Linda Darnell) seems to go along with the vengeance-seeker?until she realizes she?s on the wrong side.

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No way out

Very powerful movie for it's time and subject matter acted perfeclty by Widmark and Sidney. April 28, 2008

JOSEPH L. MANKIEWICZ, OPUS 8

*** 1950. Co-written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. One nomination for the Academy awards (screenplay). In this social film noir, a racist hoodlum, played by Richard Widmark, taxes a black doctor with the murder of his wounded brother and Linda Darnell doesn't know where's the truth. In my opinion, a minor effort in Mankiewicz's filmography. If one can recognize in NO WAY OUT the familiar Mankiewicz theme of the description of a man's humiliation, some dialogues of the film have aged pretty badly. Nevertheless, if you're a fan of this director, you should have this DVD in your library. The quality of the images and the sound is great. February 9, 2008

Good for it's time

For the time in which this film was release, it was ground breaking-or was it? All the movies prior to the 70s that had a black person in the main cast was about the same thing: trying to humanize the black race to whites. You can find movies in the 40s, 50s and 60s, trying to hammer in the same theme. It reached a point that for a couple of decades that was all Poitiers films were about. Insert a profession usually reserved for whites (up until those times) Doctor, a cop, a potiential land owner and then watch the faces of the white people twist with rage. If they wanted this film to be REALLY risky, have the autopsy report state that Dr. Brooks made a mistake. What would have been the message then? Aren't black doctors allowed to make mistakes the same as white doctors? Why have it make the point of Dr. Brookes being an exceptional doctor? His wife boasting about his straight A's and so on and so on. Don't get me wrong. This is a good film, but the theme and its message wasn't as groundbreaking as they claimed. It was just one that needed to be hammered home until the idea took. Still great performances by all the cast members. The script, though predictable, is still good. Overall, this is a film worth your time. September 23, 2007

Drama masquerading as film noir

One of the more interesting of the 1950 film noirs is this drama starring Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell and, in his screen debut, Sidney Poitier whose West Indian accent shows up here and there to let the closely-listening viewer know he's black, but definitely not American.

Be that as it may, this is a solid, well thought out piece of filmmaking co-scripted and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz. The powerful social theme of racism is a major one in this film--so much so that the "N" word is used quite a few times--and there's a full scale race riot depicted as well, which is, needless to say, really daring for a 1950 film.

The only real reason this is labelled film noir is that the Richard Widmark character, Ray Biddle, is a criminal who, along with his brother John, was both shot (in the leg) and caught by the cops, then put up in the local hospital where Luther Brooks (Poitier) is the most promising intern in the place--according to the chief surgeon, Wharton (Stephen McNally).

Widmark, as usual, turns in a fine performance, but the real stars of the show are, it seems to me, Linda Darnell and Sidney Poitier. Darnell is interesting here because unlike her typical femme fatale role, she plays down (to whatever extent she can, which is tough) her obvious feminine features by wearing dowdy clothes and de-emphasizing her makeup, and is really convincing as a tough broad living in a neighborhood about one level above Skid Row--maybe two. Poitier has a strong screen presence and even with some awkwardness here and there is more than convincing as a man torn between his ethnic heritage and his obvious intelligence in his demanding profession.

Widmark's character Ray Biddle is a vicious racist and blames Dr. Brooks (Poitier) for his brother John's death, which was clearly caused by a brain tumor--totally unrelated to his getting shot in the leg by the same cop who shot Ray in the leg. Ray incites the male residents of Beaver Canal--the one-level-above-Skid Row neighborhood--to go after the blacks in their neighborhood; hence, the riot.

The four stars are primarily for the startling degree of foresight and boldness of subject matter, as well as the strong performances by Poitier and Darnell, as well as Widmark. This is a surprisingly good movie--not what I would personally call film noir, but which has lasted the test of time with that monicker stuck to it.

Whatever category you put it in, it's definitely worth seeing. September 13, 2007

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