Richard Conte plays a hot head recently returned from the Navy, who jumps in on a business deal out of personal vengeance when he finds out that a crooked produce dealer (played in a characteristically tiresome performance by Lee J. Cobb) not only cheated his father, but also caused him to lose use of his legs in an auto accident. He teams up with Millard Mitchell (giving a wonderfully gruff performance) to deliver a load of apples to Cobb in San Francisco. But Conte finds out that the dirty dealings surrounding the produce market in the big city are plentiful, and he and Cobb begin a cat and mouse game to see who can swindle who. And just to complicate matters, an enigmatic gamine (played by Valentina Cortese) shows up and takes a hankering to Conte. Is she playing him straight, or is she part of the whole corrupt mess?
Director Jules Dassin uses the rather mundane premise -- delivering a load of apples to a fruit market -- to frame a haunting and striking chronicle of one man's nightmare journey from the cosy confines of small-town America to the jangling, sinister and shadowy worlds of its urban jungles. **POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD** Though Dassin gives us a happy ending, it's a qualified one. After all, Conte turns his back on his devoted girl and his family to join the denizens of the city, and chooses the allure of the "worldy" vamp over that of the pristine virgin. In an America shaken up by WWII and desperately wanting to believe in the white picket American dream, this bitter pill of a film suggests that that dream isn't for everyone.
With Jack Oakie and Joseph Pevney as a pair of rival apple sellers, who bring some nice shading to their supporting plot line.
Grade: A
Director Jules Dassin uses the rather mundane premise -- delivering a load of apples to a fruit market -- to frame a haunting and striking chronicle of one man's nightmare journey from the cosy confines of small-town America to the jangling, sinister and shadowy worlds of its urban jungles. **POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD** Though Dassin gives us a happy ending, it's a qualified one. After all, Conte turns his back on his devoted girl and his family to join the denizens of the city, and chooses the allure of the "worldy" vamp over that of the pristine virgin. In an America shaken up by WWII and desperately wanting to believe in the white picket American dream, this bitter pill of a film suggests that that dream isn't for everyone.
With Jack Oakie and Joseph Pevney as a pair of rival apple sellers, who bring some nice shading to their supporting plot line.
Grade: A