Directed by:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Starring:
Sidney Poitier ………. Dr. Luther Brooks
Richard Widmark ………. Ray Biddle
Linda Darnell ………. Edie Johnson/Mrs. John Biddle
Stephen McNally ………. Dr. Dan Wharton
Mildred Joanne Smith ………. Cora Brooks
Harry Bellaver ………. George Biddle
20th Century Fox presents No Way Out. Written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz & Lesser Samuels. Running time: 106 minutes. NOT RATED. Available on DVD: March 7, 2006.
Film noir isn’t a genre as much as it’s a style. The lighting, mood, dialogue and overall message that the film presents are what tend to categorize them as noir titles. They show sides to the characters never openly observed in film before, desire, rage, characters struggling with their morals unable to see the errors of their ways or too headstrong to admit them. But it’s the brilliant use of lighting and shading and the razor sharp dialogue that make them memorable. Which is why it’s hard to look at No Way Out and see it as a noir film, while it has some of those traits it’s clearly more of a look at social issues than character ones.
To get the importance of this film, a little back story is needed; Darryl F. Zanuck the vice president of Twentieth Century Fox in the 40’s was a very liberal man who had little to no worry when it came to facing issues he felt were relevant in the art of film. He previously had worked with films like Pinky that showed no fear in revealing important stances or looks at modern culture, but many saw it as pussyfooting around the issues. then came Lesser Samuels with his story for No Way Out, dealing with a straight faced look at racism and very radical characterizations on film. Like the showing of a black family and their way of living at home. Before this film the most you would see of this is the black actor telling his superior he was going home, never to go as far as to give his entire family screen time and a presence. Let alone allow a black man be the lead in a film and to be a doctor in a white hospital. Things like these were never seen before by audiences on screen.
No Way Out is centered around Dr. Luther Brooks, a black intern in a white hospital which was the film debut of legendary actor Sidney Poitier. Dr. Brooks has studied his whole life, spent his pay checks on books rather than food, and after all his studying and testing he still has self doubt with his job. Even though all of his colleagues especially his resident supervisor Dr. Dan Wharton assure him that he’s not only fit for the job but one of the brightest interns in the entire hospital. Then the two Biddle brothers Ray and Johnny are rushed to the hospital after being shot down in an attempted robbery. Both brothers have identical wounds, minor shots to the leg only Johnny is unable to communicate and is quickly slipping. Dr. Brooks is dumbfounded as to why Johnny is showing these signs with something so minor as a shot to the leg and as a last ditch effort to help him, he administers a spinal tap only to have Johnny die seconds later.
His brother Ray who was in the room during the on the spot surgery begins hooting and hollering that the black doctor had killed his brother due to the obscenities and crude way he was acting towards Brooks and he took revenge on his brother. Now Ray has a vendetta against Bros who he is adamant killed his brother in vein, only young Dr. Brooks isn’t 100% sure that he made the right decision either and wishes for an autopsy only the state doesn’t require an autopsy on every patient and only family can ask for one. With only Ray as a living relative he refuses to sign off to allow Brooks to have a clear conscience. Now the doctors need to convince Edie, Johnny’s ex-wife to talk Ray in to doing the right thing. That is unless Ray has a few things up his sleeve as well.
Around the time of the film being made Richard Wilmark was seen by audiences as the actor who was always a loose cannon, and he hoped he could use that fame to put himself in the leading man role in Hollywood. He even refused the role when it was first offered to him it was so offending to him, but he was talked in to it. He never managed to shake the type casting but this is by far the role that most will remember him for, the Ray character is just so despicable and disgusting to watch it’s one of the most disturbing and horrific roles of its time.
Portie wasn’t given top billing that he deserved for being the lead, in fact his name wasn’t even listed on the poster, the studio instead focused on the established stars in the movie. But it wasn’t only there that the publicity was changing the perception for the audience, the trailers and everything else for the movie completely avoided the subject matter of racism, focusing instead of the Ray and Edie scenes from the movie to make it look like a noir/melodrama film. Showing that while Zanuck and Mankiewicz were positive the movie was needed to be made and seen, the studio was terrified of what the outcome could be. Going so far as to limit where the movie was shown in fear it would cause riots in the south.
Probably the most important thing to take from this film is Mankiewicz’ no holds barred look at racism and the ugliness of man in a time where these types of things were trying to be not necessarily forgotten, but erased as if these tendencies never existed on film. He showed us just how ugly we can be with a deplorable unsympathetic character in Ray. It’s so edgy you can’t help but applaud him for bringing this story to the big screen.
So watching the movie now it’s dated and some of the dialog is ham fisted by the writer to shorten length and give viewers a little less subtlety to the story (an inherit curse of the time). To look at its impact at the time of its debut however, is the true way to appreciate a film like this. While certain parts of the story feel dated after so many recent films that have tried to cover the issue with modern times like Crash it’s still a film worth your time to check out.
Story: 8/10
Acting: 7.5/10
Look/Feel: 6.5/10
Originality: 9/10
Entertainment Value: 7.5/10
Total: 38.5/50
FINAL Score: 7.5/10
Video:
(Presented in 1.33:1 Fullscreen)
Boy has Fox put together one mighty fine restoration crew for this release, it’s beyond words how beautiful this picture quality looks. There are the standard flashes of dirt an occasional scratch but on a whole the picture is phenomenal for a fifty year old film that has slipped in to obscurity over the decades.
Score: 8/10
Audio:
(English 2.0 Stereo & 1.0 Mono)
Old noir films and old films in general usually don’t have big blaring sound effects or explosions but they did have brilliantly composed scores and Alfred Newman’s music comes out of the speakers wonderfully. It certainly won’t shake the room but the audio is perfect for the story that is being told.
Score: 6/10
Extras:
Feature Length Commentary by Film Noir Historian and writer Eddie Muller, Muller may be best known for his book Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir. He says on the track that he’s going to be scene specific where he would allow certain dialogue in the movie he found important take the main focus and then come back to cover parts of the films production. What he says here is very informative and I could only imagine what other factoids he could have thrown out had he instead played it out as one consistent running track rather than the format he chose to do.
Fox Movietone News – We’re given two segments which combined only play for about one minute. One of them is for the debut of the film in New York City with Linda Darnell selling tickets at the premiere while the other shows us Richard Widmark putting his hands and feet in to cement outside of the Grauman’s Chinese theater.
Also on the DVD are two Galleries, one for promotion posters and publicity shots and the other for photo’s which are basically screen captures from the movie. And since this isn’t a Sony release, we’re actually given the Theatrical Trailer for the movie No Way Out along with trailers for other Fox Film Noir titles like The Dark Corner, Laura, and Where the Side Walk Ends.
Score: 6/10
