This gritty, quintessential, eternally underrated noir is drenched in greed, cynicism, and corruption of the soul, as embodied by the great John Garfield (The Postman Always Rings Twice). He plays Joe Morse, a lawyer whose connection to a ruthless racketeer has destroyed his sense of morality. His participation in a rigged numbers racket will probably ruin his high-strung brother (Thomas Gomez, superb), whose small-time policy bank stands to be wiped out by the scheme. The supporting cast is uniformly outstanding, but special mention must be made of noir queen Marie Windsor (The Killing).
