This film is a typical example of why a revolution in film occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. One the one hand the producers of this 1960 film wanted to deal with controversial topics such as the hobo lifestyle and homosexuality, but they just couldn't avoid the traditional Hollywood studio compulsion to sanitize things. One particularly stupid example occurs very early in the film. The freight hopping hoboes are dressed like prep school students, and their clothes are amazingly clean and neat. Boxcars are FILTHY. I know this because I worked one summer loading them at a factory. An hour or two working in one and you look like you spent the night in a dumpster. As for the homosexuality, I completely missed that implication the first time I saw the film and only picked up on it after I read reviews here at IMDB. The producer and/or director just couldn't bear to make it too obvious, and that would have been easy to do. Homosexuality was common among hoboes, by the way. Like prisoners in jail, even straight hoboes engaged in it, as they had few other options.
This could have been an excellent film, even with a low budget, if the producer didn't clean everything up so as not to offend audience members with delicate sensibilities. But then why did he show a rape/murder, a beating, and a near lynching? I guess those things were OK to watch in the "heartland" of America in 1960.
This could have been an excellent film, even with a low budget, if the producer didn't clean everything up so as not to offend audience members with delicate sensibilities. But then why did he show a rape/murder, a beating, and a near lynching? I guess those things were OK to watch in the "heartland" of America in 1960.