EDGE OF DOOM (director: Mark Robson; screen writers: from the novel by Leo Brady/ Ben Hecht/Philip Yordan; cinematographer: Harry Stradling; cast: Dana Andrews (Father Roth), Farley Granger (Martin Lynn), Joan Evans (Rita Conroy), Robert Keith (Mandel), Paul Stewart (Craig), Mala Powers (Julie), Adele Jergens (Irene), Harold Vermilyea (Father Kirkman), Mabel Paige (Mrs. Pearson), Virginia Brissac (Mrs. Dennis), Jean Innes (Mrs. Lally), Ellen Corby (Mrs. Moore), Ray Teal (Ned Moore), Frances Morris (Mrs. Lynn), Houseley Stevenson (Mr. Swanson), Howland Chamberlain (Mr. Murray), John Ridgely (1st Detective), Douglas Fowley (2nd Detective), 1950)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
This gloomy but above-average noir film, tells the story of a mixed-up young man, Martin Lynn (Farley), who on the night of his mother's death, went seeking help from his local church's priest to give his mother (Morris) a big funeral and became enraged by the old priest's insensitivity to his poor family, so much so that he picks up a crucifix on the desk and kills Father Kirkman (Vermilyea) by banging it over his head.
The film hired Ben Hecht to add a prologue and epilogue to its already finished project, as he expands the role of Father Roth (Dana), who tells the tale in flashback as a morale booster to a young priest wanting to leave the poor New York City church because he can't reach the parishoners. Father Roth was the younger assistant to Father Kirkman and inherited the job of church pastor upon Kirkman's death. He will tell the priest how he tried to save the kid by getting him to believe in God and confess to the police about his crime, thusly removing the great pain Martin was undergoing, and how this restored his faith in the church.
The film opens with Father Roth telling the disillusioned younger priest the story of how the local people in the community can sometimes bring God to the priest, as the film quickly goes into the flashback mode. After the fadeout, Martin is seen as an industrious worker in a floral shop, where he is a truck deliverer. His boss Mr. Swanson (Houseley) refuses to give him a raise on his $30 a week salary, which keeps him impoverished, unable to help his ailing mother get the proper medicine needed and for her to move to Arizona, where he thinks she will be able to survive best. It also keeps him from saving enough money to marry his elevator operator girlfriend, Julie (Mala), who loves him but is upset that the handsome momma's boy is so busy that he hardly sees her anymore.
That night while the two lovebirds plan to dine together, Martin receives a call from his mother's neighbor, Mrs. Lally (Innes), that his mother took very sick. When he gets home, he learns that she died and he becomes visibly shaken. The view of his claustrophobic tenement apartment, in which he shares with his mother, gives the feeling how trapped he must feel in this dark setting.
Martin has developed a negative feeling toward the church, ever since the tragic incident that occurred when he was 13-years-old and his father held up a store to get money for his needy family but when caught, he committed suicide. Father Kirkman refused to give his father a proper Catholic burial. Despite that, his mother remained an avid church goer and was able to come to terms with what Father Kirkman did, but Martin never stepped foot in the church again. Though, he grew up to be a good boy, never getting into trouble and devoting his life to helping his kindly mother, but with a pent-up rage against the hypocritical church, which he saw as taking money from parishoners who were poor enough already.
Martin has it in his head that he must give his mother a big funeral and feels the church owes it to him, and he goes to the rectory to see Father Roth, who got along very well with his mother and has a way of reaching people, but as fate would have it, the Father has just gone out on a call and only the insensitive Father Kirkman is in. When he meets Martin, he can't relate with him but tries to tell him that the church could cover the expenses for a small funeral, but he soon feels uncomfortable around the troubled young man, so he calls him a cab and gives him cab fare to get rid of him. That's when Martin went into his fatal rage and accidently killed him.
Escaping into the city's crowded streets, in a panic-stricken frame of mind, he passes a movie theater whose box office has just been held-up and runs away from the crowd into a diner. He is picked up there by a pair of cops who harshly grill him, sensing something is wrong, they book him for the theater robbery. At the police station, he is further grilled by Inspector Mandel (Keith), who tells Father Roth that he suspects something about that boy, but releases him into his custody when Father Roth vouches for the boy. He goes on to tell Father Roth, that in his experience as a cop he knows when someone is holding back information from him. But Father Roth adamently says he's not the type to rob someone. These scenes between the cops and the hysterical youth are classic noir ones and are what give the film its very dark edge.
Martin goes out-of-control, demanding that his flower shop boss give him the best floral arrangement possible for his mother's funeral, but he upsets his boss so much, that he is fired. He then goes to Murray's funeral home, trying to arrange a lavish funeral even though he doesn't have the money. When Murray (Chamberlain) hears that he is unemployed, he refuses to help him, telling him to go to the church and let them take care of matters.
Father Roth accidently scratches on Father Kirkman's notepad and the impression of Martin's name is on it. Now knowing that Martin did it, he will try to get Martin to confess and find peace for his troubled soul. He believes Martin is not an evil person, but someone who is confused and has a good conscience because he believes in God.
Martin is part of a lineup for the murder, as a neighbor saw someone entering the church at the time of the murder. But the neighbor fingers the wrong person, a Mr. Craig (Stewart), a neighbor of Martin's who is a known petty thief. He tells the cops he didn't do the murder but he did the theater robbery, but Inspector Mandel doesn't believe him and books him for murder.
Meanwhile, Martin is full of pain and anxiety, not knowing what to do. So he sneaks into the funeral home and views his mother's body, talking to her and coming to terms about what he has to do. He later on meets up with Father Roth and is concerned only that he shouldn't miss his mother's funeral, as he is turned over to Inspector Mandel. Father Roth says that both of them will be at the funeral.
In the epilogue, Father Roth tells the young priest that he writes to Martin in his prison and Martin expresses an interest in coming back to the church and praying at the altar where Father Kirkman prayed. The rosy picture of the church trying to do its best contrasting with the seamy side of the city where the church is located and the dark mind of the confused young man, did not jive. This was a dark tale and could have been made more interesting if it cut away from Father Roth's saintly but unconvincing role and followed through more on the story as it was written by Philip Yordan from Leo Brady's novel. The potential was there for a great film. Censorship was the curse of the 1950s for films, and this good priest-bad priest part of the story unfortunately turns out to be an exercise in self-righteousness, unwisely tacked onto a perfectly good story.
REVIEWED ON 1/16/2000 GRADE: B-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
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