Louis Friedlander-directed film
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best movie i've ever seen.
A different way of telling a story
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Henry Hunter is paroled from prison and tries to make his way on the straight and narrow. However, the entire parole system is so corrupt, that he risks his life to try to fix it in this well-meaning but ineptly produced B picture.The dedicated film fan will want to see this movie for a wealth of character actors, including Alan Hale, Grant Mitchell, Burton Churchill, Alan Dinehart and incredibly young versions of Anthony Quinn -- he's the con who gets shanked at the movie's start -- and Noah Beery Jr. The failings of the movie outweigh that pleasure, with the entire movie shot in a series of small sets and the story told by newspaper headlines, with intermittent pauses as Mr. Hunter pauses to explain that parole is a fine idea, but that the system as it exists is utterly corrupt. More a polemic than a movie, you won't want to see this more than once.
Having made his screen debut this year after being a prizefighter for a short time, the 21 year old Anthony Quinn exploited his dual heritage of an Irish father and Mexican mother in this film. His face was so flexible that you could believe he was an Italian, Indian, Mexican or Greek.