Simply Perfect

Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Quality entertainment that gets to the point and stays there. We get to visit with the docks back in in the 50's and the nonsense some serious some not that goes on there. Working at the docks is simple enough but the people make it not only interesting but in this case dangerous too. Enjoy Jack Warden who always delivers his characters true to life and is so good at representing the average man or point of view even if unpopular. John Cassavettes is not to be missed and who can ignore any film with Sidney Poitier in it? Lumped all together, we get a nice little glimpse and taste of human natures, life in the trenches and we get to see up close for ourselves what makes a man or a mouse as well as an ani-male and be better for it. Nice portrayal of the age old omerta type law of the underworld where if one sings like a canary, they are branded a rat. But the question begs this: What if one should tell what happened because it is the right thing to do? What then? This is the true test of manhood or the lack thereof and we are introduced to this dynamic in this movie which is reason enough to watch it. This is an excellent movie for eating a sandwich, chips and a tasty drink. This may not be edge of your seat entertainment but edge of you life also known as real life....

For years, I had wanted to see this movie but I didn't find it in any video stores nor see any listings on TV schedules in whatever local paper I was reading. So when I found it was available on DVD from Netflix, I made an order. I just watched it with my mom, who hadn't seen it before, and we both were enthralled by the drama about John Cassavetes, a loner with a troubled past, who gets a job on the docks. He meets a couple of coworkers there: Jack Warden who doesn't seem to like him and Sidney Poitier, who does. Warden also doesn't seem to like Poitier and it doesn't take long figure out why but it's a while before things come to a head. Anyway, this was quite a compelling drama as directed by Martin Ritt with fine supporting turns by Kathleen Maguire, Estelle Hemsley, and Ruby Dee as Poitier's wife especially when she confronts Cassavetes near the end. So on that note, I highly recommend Edge of the City.

I cry at a lot of movies. Call me sentimental. Call me one of those viewers who always likes to see a happy ending. This movie, though it has a sad ending, was great! Of all of the actors that I would love to have lunch with, it would be Sidney Poitier. His acting, along with John Cassavetes and Jack Warden (of 12 Angry Men fame)is stellar. His character, who befriends a man on the run (Cassavetes) and helps him out in every way possible is incredible.This is another one of those forgotten noirs made during the end of the noirish era. It is well done, has a superb cast, extremely talented acting, and great cinematography. It is a film worth watching over and over again. I highly recommend this one! This is just another truly great film done by Mr. Poitier and should be sold on DVD. Even though I cried, kudos to such great art!

John Cassavetes plays Axel Nordmann who, AWOL from the U.S. Army, gets a job as a New York City dockworker. In short order he becomes friends with Tommy Tyler (Sidney Poitier), a foreman on the dock. Tommy is happily married to Lucy (Ruby Dee) and they have a cute young boy. Into this mix is put Charles Malik (Jack Warden), a corrupt and vindictive foreman, who has a contentious relationship with both Tommy and Axel.I liked the black and white photography, but I found the characterizations to be too black and white. For a foreman having to deal with the frictions at the dock Tommy has an unrealistically sunny and cheerful disposition - life just couldn't be better for him. Sidney Poitier turns in a fine performance, but Tommy's character was just too irreproachably good for me. I found Cassavetes to be wooden in his portrayal of the confused Axel who has a problem with authority, stemming from his relationship with his father. Warden is fine as the consistently mean-spirited Malik and Dee shines in her few appearances.I was bothered by many inconsistencies. In a phone conversation with his parents at the beginning of the movie Axel's father is so irritated with his son that he doesn't even want to talk with him and encourages his wife not to take the call. Then toward the end, his father falls all over himself begging his son to come home, telling him that he is all that he and his wife have. Tommy's wife tells Axel that she is so happy that he and Tommy are friends, since Tommy didn't have any friends. But if Tommy, as portrayed, was such an outgoing friendly guy, it is hard to imagine that he did not have any friends. The whole racism issue, central to the plot, comes out of nowhere toward the end. In his relationship with his love interest Ellen, Axel behaves like an awkward teenager - could he really be that naive? The scenes between him and Ellen are embarrassing. For the life of me I could not figure out what it was about Axel that Tommy and Ellen felt so immediately drawn to? The fight scene between Tommy and Malik was intense and riveting, but then the final fight scene I found to be staged and difficult to believe.The music is overly dramatic.One cannot see this movie without comparing it with "On the Waterfront," and judging it to be a derivative work. Credit must be given to "Edge of the City" for taking on the issue of racism in an era when that was being swept under the rug, and it does not shy from an ending that probably would not have played well with focus groups had such existed then. But "Waterfront" deals with corruption in more detail and is all round a vastly superior movie in my opinion.