Director Fregonese has never made it anywhere near as much as the middle of my list of favorite directors, there is always some mediocrity about his work. In ONE WAY STREET he stitches together a mixed bag, part of which resembles a poor copy of TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948), notably the segment where Walter Huston saves a child in a Hispanic village.
Mason does a good job in the thankless part of Dr. Matson but he cannot rescue it from a poor script, pedestrian photography and the absence of a counterweight to his quality acting: Dan Duryea goes "missing in action" for so long that his role becomes meaningless. One question harried me to the end: How did Duryea survive Dr Matson's poison while the latter and Toren were in Mexico for about a year if we never see Duryea get the antidote?
Good thing that William Conrad provides the film's main surprise. Bad thing: Toren is physically gorgeous but her acting is substandard, and her lines below par.
Basil Ruysdael as Father Moreno gives some quality support to Mason, but the Mexican heavies struck me as unconvincing, if not downright naif.
I am a Mason fan and completist, so I am glad I saw it through but, as a whole, this production code venom-injected product does not deserve more than 5/10, especially because it becomes obvious that a happier ending would have made a difference. For the better, too!
Mason does a good job in the thankless part of Dr. Matson but he cannot rescue it from a poor script, pedestrian photography and the absence of a counterweight to his quality acting: Dan Duryea goes "missing in action" for so long that his role becomes meaningless. One question harried me to the end: How did Duryea survive Dr Matson's poison while the latter and Toren were in Mexico for about a year if we never see Duryea get the antidote?
Good thing that William Conrad provides the film's main surprise. Bad thing: Toren is physically gorgeous but her acting is substandard, and her lines below par.
Basil Ruysdael as Father Moreno gives some quality support to Mason, but the Mexican heavies struck me as unconvincing, if not downright naif.
I am a Mason fan and completist, so I am glad I saw it through but, as a whole, this production code venom-injected product does not deserve more than 5/10, especially because it becomes obvious that a happier ending would have made a difference. For the better, too!