For what seemed the bulk of his career Victor Mature was regarded as something of an acting joke not least by himself and he developed a nice line in self-deprecation. In the nineteen forties however he made a handful of films in which he turned in decent performances - Kiss of Death, Moss Rose, I Wake Up Screaming and this entry, Robert Siodmak's Cry Of The City which co-stars him with Richard Conte in our old chestnut friend, the one about the two guys from the same tough neighbourhood one who takes the easy way out and becomes a hood (see Jimmy Cagney) and one who becomes one of the good guys (see Pat O'Brien). This time around it's Richard Conte who remains a hood and Victor Mature who becomes a cop. Robert Siodmak was, of course, a German émigré who fled from the Nazis, would up in Hollywood and brought with him a highly developed feel for 'noir' and a touch of the expressionism so that his movies were always worth watching. This is no exception and if Fred Clark makes an unlikely cop the Mature-Conte psychological dual more than compensates. Vastly underrated it remains a first-class example of film noir.
Review of Cry of the City
