cult film freak: VINCE EDWARDS ATOMIC ERA LATE NOIR 'CITY OF FEAR'

Written by James M. Tate / 9/11/2018 / No comments / fifties , film noir or melodrama , jazz score , vince edwards

VINCE EDWARDS ATOMIC ERA LATE NOIR 'CITY OF FEAR'

9/11/2018 | No comment

Year of Release: 1959 rating: ***

CITY OF FEAR: An escaped convict, played by Vince Edwards, steals a metal container of what he thinks is uncut heroin, but is really radioactive cobalt. As he ventures through the city, slowly dying, the cops are after him.

The edgy, underlined brilliance of this film... trumping the somewhat sluggish pace when our ailing anti-hero, not on screen, gets discussed by other cast members, especially the cops... is the symbolic comparison to the cobalt and the criminal...

One character warns Edwards that he can't show his face for fear of exposure: which means being seen, but can also mean contagious. And the container itself is liken to a fugitive criminal: the police, not wanting to cause citywide panic, warns anyone involved about how dangerous he is... And only we know what they're really talking about. Proof that heavy-handed symbolism can only usually really work within this genre.

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Tags : fifties , film noir or melodrama , jazz score , vince edwards

James M. Tate

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