Wow! Such a good movie.

Redundant and unnecessary.

Just what I expected

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is an Obscure Film-Noir that Should be Better Known because it is Certainly a Strange Brew of Religion, Revenge, and Noir. Brutal at Times the Film is Punctuated with Messages from the Bible and the Look is Acutely Dark and Shadowed with Iconic Flourishes.George Raft is at His One Note Best as He goes on a Man-Hunt Looking for the Killer of His Priest Brother. The Gideon Bible Itself is the McGuffin and Plays an Ending Twist of its Own. Raymond Burr is a Sleazy, Nasty and Violent Thug along with His Partner in Crime Henry Morgan (who was never dirtier).Although the Preaching at Times is a Heavy Load of Thumping it Never Quite goes Over the Top and Film-Noir Wins Out. A Couple of Times Raft Stops the Sermonizing with a Speech of His Own that Keeps Things where They Ought to be..."Save that eyewash for your Sunday Sermon".What a bit of Nastiness this is. Virginia Mayo doesn't do much Except Stand Around and Look Pretty, but the Rest of the Cast is in Top Noir Mode. It is a Grimy One that Deserves the Attention of Film-Noir Fans and Lovers of the Dark Side that Only these Low-Budget Movies could Pull Off. You Won't Find a Noir this Quirky or Bizarre. Note...Robert Aldridge is the second unit Director.

This film had a few interesting noir-like scenes, but overall it was a stinker. (Lots of spoilers coming, see other reviews for plot summary.) First of all, the scene in the washroom where George Raft knocks Burr to the floor was ridiculous. I'm sure Burr, who must have weighed twice as much as Raft, could have demolished him with a couple of punches.Then Virginia Mayo is a suspect by Raft in the murder of Raft's priest brother Jess who has returned from a prison camp overseas. Mayo stayed in the same hotel room as Jess and maybe took the Bible from the room (product placement for Gideon Bibles). It contains an important clue to Jess's killing. Mayo doesn't have the Bible, but instead has a photo of Jess, because her now-dead brother was in the military with Raft's brother. What are the chances of this happening? She says that Jess sent her the photo and her brother's effects. It would have made more sense if she had come to the hotel to meet with Jess, who was on his way to his new parish, and picked up the photo and other stuff, and she ended up getting Jess's room (though she still didn't take the Bible).Then there is the scene with soldier Philip Pine, who did take the Bible. Having become blind, he is depressed and is about to blow his brains out in the hotel room (where the Bible is), and then this guy suddenly appears at the window. What is this guy doing, running up and down the fire escapes in the hotel or around the hotel ledges looking for people about to commit suicide? What about the scene where Gene Lockhart is hiding under the truck and Burr kicks out the blocks which are holding the truck up? The whole truck suddenly crushes Lockhart ... but isn't the truck partially held up by the tires? Duh! At the end, Harry Morgan shows up at Raft's office just as Burr is on his way out and fingers him as the killer. Another wacky coincidence: what are the chances of this happening, that the two of them will run into each other at the office, or that Morgan survived the fall from the back of the train where Burr pushed him off? The score by Dimitri Tiomkin, was crap, aside from the fact that it cribbed passages from several famous classical works including Beethove's Eroica Symphony.

This obscure crime drama/pseudo-noir, independently produced and directed by Roy Del Ruth for United Artists, is well worth a look. Figurative (and, later in life, literal) heavy Raymond Burr plays Nick Cherney, an embezzler doing time for ripping off his employer, shipping company boss Johnny Torno (George Raft). Nick's understandably cheesed off about his conviction, and asks fellow con Rocky (Henry Morgan) - who's being released before him - to serve Johnny a heaping helping of payback after he gets out of stir. The cooperative Rocky obliges by murdering Johnny's priest brother Jess (Arthur Franz), but Johnny isn't willing to take his sibling's death lying down - until he reads some marginalia in Jess's bible. Shot on location in beautiful Carmel, California, Red Light also features Virginia Mayo, Gene Lockhart, and William Frawley (who has an interesting telephone conversation about plumbing), first rate James Van Trees cinematography, and an original score by Dmitri Tiomkin.

How satisfying! What better casting than George Raft as ANGRY MAN?? The Lord may say: "Vengeance is mine," but Georgie says "the heck with that noise -- this one's MY baby!" He rampages through a multi-state search-and-destroy mission in his quest to find the message hidden in the Gideon Bible that was in his brother's room when he was killed. Raymond Burr and Harry Morgan are his Mutt and Jeff antagonists: The irony of course being that as he fervently seeks the Bible, he fervently disregards it. But with a little Mayo on the side, things turn spiritual on Georgie, forcing him to listen to The Man before he can do a Godzilla on Godzie's old pal Burr. This is George Raft vs. The Lord, and it's anybody's match! Great fun all around, and there are even moral lessons, if you're into moral lessons, and intense but effective music to learn by, in the bargain. If you can find it, it's worth an hour and a half in your busy schedule, and you might even end up spiritually uplifted -- but stay out from under big trucks -- they're heavy!