starring Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran
directed by Felix Feist
90 minutes
Bill Clark (Steve Cochran), murdered his father when he was just 13 years old. He gets out of prison after spending almost 20 years behind bars. He moves to New York City where he meets Catherine Higgins (Ruth Roman). She doesn't want much to do with him at first but they wind up fleeing the Big Apple together after she shoots and kills a corrupt police officer.
Catherine convinces Steve, who was unconscious at the time she pulled the trigger, that he's the one who killed the cop. She eventually grows to like him as they hitchhike from New York to California where they become migrant laborers. He picks lettuce and she works in the factory where the lettuce is cleaned and prepared for shipping. Everything seems to be looking up for them until his picture surfaces in a magazine article that offers a $1,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.
I saw this movie as part of the 2025 edition of the Noir City DC film festival.
I enjoyed this movie up to a point. It's not bad it just isn't all that great. The ending really sunk it for me. It was the way things turned on a dime and the suddenness with which the direction of the story went from looking tragic to happy.
Notes
The only film I've seen in the past in which Ruth Roman had a credited appearance was Strangers on a Train (1951). She appeared in one episode each of The Outer Limits (1963) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
I've seen Steve Cochran in three other movies in recent years: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Storm Warning (1951), and The Damned Don't Cry (1950). He appeared in one episode of The Twilight Zone (1959).
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