← Back to Reviews
in
Act of Violence (1949)
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Writers: Robert L. Richards (screenplay), Collier Young (story)
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor
Genre: Film-Noir
Act of Violence (1949)
Writers: Robert L. Richards (screenplay), Collier Young (story)
Cast: Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor
Genre: Film-Noir
"An embittered, vengeful POW (Robert Ryan) stalks his former commanding officer (Van Heflin) who betrayed his men's planned escape attempt from a Nazi prison camp."
I dug this. It was a deep film, deep like a bottomless well...The kind of well that once you fall in you can never escape from the darkness...That's how Van Heflin felt in the movie. \
He plays a former Army CO who has conspired with the Nazis while being held in a POW camp. His crime is betrayal, and as such there is no escape for him. Enforcing the darkness of this bottomless pit is Robert Ryan...the only POW who survived the Nazi's tortures.
Tortures that were inflicted because his CO (Van Heflin) conspired with the enemy. Now Robert Ryan seeks vengeance. He's tracked down Van Heflin and aims to kill him, even if it means he'll destroy the happy life Van has made with his newlywed wife.
Mary Astor turns in one helluva performance as a hacked out prostitute, who sees the man on the run and picks him up for a trick.
Robert Ryan is formidable as a man who has been wronged and is out to kill a traitor and former friend.
Janet Leigh is very young here and yet still very skilled at delivering believable emotions as the confused and scared wife.
Sound good? It is! Hitch would have been proud to put his name on such a film. Not to say this is a Hitch wanna be, it's not....it's pure film noir with a thriller man hunt at it's core.
Waiting in the wings is the newlywed wife of Van Heflin played by a very young Janet Leigh. She doesn't know what her husband did in the WWII prisoner camp, and she can't understand the burden he carries....or why they must pick up and rush out of town at a moments notice.
Act of Violence is an exciting film. It's well done with stunning noir style cinematography The characters are multi dimensional and their motives seem real. That says a lot about the movie, as often characters in film noir are mere shadowy figures without much substance...here there's substance to spare.
I dug this. It was a deep film, deep like a bottomless well...The kind of well that once you fall in you can never escape from the darkness...That's how Van Heflin felt in the movie. \
He plays a former Army CO who has conspired with the Nazis while being held in a POW camp. His crime is betrayal, and as such there is no escape for him. Enforcing the darkness of this bottomless pit is Robert Ryan...the only POW who survived the Nazi's tortures.
Tortures that were inflicted because his CO (Van Heflin) conspired with the enemy. Now Robert Ryan seeks vengeance. He's tracked down Van Heflin and aims to kill him, even if it means he'll destroy the happy life Van has made with his newlywed wife.
Mary Astor turns in one helluva performance as a hacked out prostitute, who sees the man on the run and picks him up for a trick.
Janet Leigh is very young here and yet still very skilled at delivering believable emotions as the confused and scared wife.
Sound good? It is! Hitch would have been proud to put his name on such a film. Not to say this is a Hitch wanna be, it's not....it's pure film noir with a thriller man hunt at it's core.
Waiting in the wings is the newlywed wife of Van Heflin played by a very young Janet Leigh. She doesn't know what her husband did in the WWII prisoner camp, and she can't understand the burden he carries....or why they must pick up and rush out of town at a moments notice.
Act of Violence is an exciting film. It's well done with stunning noir style cinematography The characters are multi dimensional and their motives seem real. That says a lot about the movie, as often characters in film noir are mere shadowy figures without much substance...here there's substance to spare.