The Cinematheque

“Does any psychopath in film noir’s rogues gallery strike quite as much immediate, stomach-churning terror as Tommy Udo? … Widmark’s Oscar-nominated performance makes the entire enterprise feel vital. He’s a villain for the ages.”

Andy Crump, Paste

Henry Hathaway’s New York-shot noir is famed for iconic tough guy Richard Widmark’s blistering (and Oscar-nominated) screen debut. The actor plays cackling, sadistic hoodlum Tommy Udo, ​“the template for every homicidal maniac in cinema” (Clancy Brown, Empire). Victor Mature, headliner, is jailbird Nick Bianco, cuffed on Christmas Eve for holding up a jewelry store. His decision to turn stool pigeon for the sake of his kids sends him on a collision course with the psychopathic Udo. The hard-hitting script is by legendary screenwriters Ben Hecht (Notorious) and Charles Lederer (His Girl Friday), while the cinematography, contrasting documentary-like exteriors with highly stylized interiors, is by Norbert Brodine (Thieves’ Highway). A much grislier version of the film, depicting the dark fate of Bianco’s wife, was rejected by censors. Widmark’s performance was apparently inspired by the Joker in Batman comics, and likely influenced Heath Ledger’s take as the Clown Prince in Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

“A clean knockout … It is also something new and welcome in US crime movies. None of its criminals are glamorous, nor does anyone piously point out that crime does not pay. Nobody has to. The whole picture amply demonstrates the fact.”

James Agee, Time

“I think this character [Tommy Udo] was so upsetting that audiences and the studios never wanted to see it again, so they reinvented Widmark as a leading man. As a piece of acting, he was never as good.”

Clancy Brown, Empire