One scene is particularly memorable. Safe-cracker Cavelli after being wounded during the robbery is seen in the background dying in his marital bed, through the open door of the bedroom from the kitchen of his apartment, where his distraught wife, Maria, beautifully played by Teresa Celli (who appeared in bit parts in only a handful of movies before moving into obscurity in 1953), at the kitchen table admonishing the hunchback getaway driver, Gus, for bringing this tragedy upon her young family. Maria has the best line in the picture. As a police siren wails in the background, she says: “Sounds like a soul in hell.”

As I already noted at the Getafilm this is a superior tretament of the film.

I will admit that some of the character development may have been redundant, but I would actually argue that the second half left me cooler than the first. It’s interesting to see what happens to everyone after the heist, but my patience was wearing thin as we had to see each character meet his demise.

Overall, the largest impression it left with me was the timelessness of the story.

Daniel, an interesting writeup on what is surely a seminal film, especially in the heist sequence.

I think Huston’s favorite theme — one’s vices, especially greed, getting the better of one — makes for some cold-eyed, yet beautiful, film-making.

An excellent point, here. The cinematography in this film is some of the finest I’ve seen so far in any of the noirs we have watched.

I think, overall, that this one left me feeling a bit cold. That has to do, I believe, with the fact that the film takes its time building up. It isn’t that I lack the patience to sit through films like this, but for quite a while there is not much going on. Dare I say it, the film probably could have used a 10 minute trim or so.

Now I’ll just sit back and wait for the blasphemy police to come out.