Customer Reviews

No Way Out [VHS]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Joseph L. Mankiewicz's able direction accurately chronicles the ugliness of racism as seen through the eyes of the characters in the flick "No Way Out".

Sidney Poitier is his first starring role plays dedicated and idealistic physician Dr. Luther Brooks. Poitier is working the prison ward of the county hospital when Ray Biddle played by Richard Widmark and his brother Johnny are brought in. They both had been shot in the leg by cops during a gas station heist.

Widmark, a hellacious bigot, balks when he and his brother are examined by a black doctor.

Poitier becomes suspicious that brother Johnny Biddle is in much more dire straits than from just a leg wound. Fearing brain damage he performs a spinal tap but the patient expires during the procedure. Widmark immediately blames Poitier for killing his brother. Poitier with full support of his boss Dr. Wharton played by Stephen McNally, requests an autopsy to prove the suspected presence of a brain tumor. Widmark however refuses.

The brother's ex-wife Edie played by Linda Darnell is coaxed by the doctors into changing Widmark's mind. The plot plays out with the despicable Widmark using a third brother to mobilize their lowlife racist friends to attack the local black neighborhood. A racial riot ensues and the hospital becomes full of victims but an unsatisfied Widmark is still out for blood.

"No Way Out" is a very disturbing look at the 1950's version of racism. The picture is not a very pretty one. Both Widmark playing the mad dog racist and Poitier the moralistic physician gave very effective performances.

There's nothing much subtle about NO WAY OUT. Two men, two brothers, are injured by the police while committing a petty crime. The men are transported to the prison ward of the county hospital, where one of the brothers dies while being treated by a young intern. The surviving brother vows mortal vengeance. The doctor needs the approval of a family member to conduct an autopsy to prove his competence and relieve his conscious.

It's a suitably sturdy set-up for what could have been an unspectacular urban melodrama. Trouble is NO WAY OUT is pretty spectacular. For starters, the young doctor is black and the surviving brother is a virulent racist. The talent behind the movie is, to put it mildly, impressive. It begins with the amazing producer Darryl Zanuck, the motor behind such thinking-person movies as The Grapes of Wrath & The Snake Pit, and who seemingly was incapable of making a bad movie. Joseph L. Mankiewicz wrote and directed this movie, and though nominated for an 1951 Oscar for Best Director lost out to himself when he won it for another, much different, classic, All About Eve.

Message movies have a tendency to collapse under their moral weightiness. NO WAY OUT is a movie with a social conscious, but it, for the most part, steers clear of the pulpit. Richard Widmark is perfectly cast as the racist Roy Biddle, who is quite possibly the most loathsome major character in film history. Sidney Poitier, in his first movie, brings just the right blend of intelligence and dignity to his part as the young physician under the gun. Rounding out this unusual triangle is Linda Darnell as the ex-wife of the dead brother.

NO WAY OUT is an uncomfortable movie to watch. Roy Biddle is a vocal racist, and he uses just about every ugly name in the book, loudly and often. There are some scenes of the Beaver Canal group, Biddle's cronies, preparing to attack the black part of town, that are nightmarish. Linda Darnell, the car-hop girl who thought she'd crawled away from Beaver Canal, comes across as an almost tragic figure. This is an intelligent, driving movie, with some scenes that might not be appropriate for young children. The Warner Brothers print is in very good condition, and, as always, the man who can name every actor in history, and has anecdotes to back him up, Eddie Muller's commentary track enhances the experience.

Any film noir starring Richard Widmark and Linda Darnell, with script and direction by Joseph Mankiewicz is sure to rate atleast 4 (out of a possible 5 ) star rating.Add the great Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee to the cast and your edging closer to a 5 star rating, and makes this film is the quiet, understated performance by Sidney Poitier, in his film debut.The three leading players Linda, Widmark (never better as a ugly racist] and Poitier come to life vividly under Mankiewiczs'expert direction.Wonderful commetary by Eddie Mueller,who is also a great fan of the of that forgotten treasure LINDA DARNELL.Great to know Fox is releasing two great noir films on June 6-2006-"I WAKE UP SCREAMING", and "HOUSE OF STRANGERS", (also directed by Mankiewiczs).Another Fox noir "BOOMERANG" will be released the same day.TO me "BOOMERANR" is not up to the same level as the other two.

No Way out is a good movie about a black doctor who treats two white brothers.When one brother dies,the other accuses the doctor of murder,because the doctor is black.This movie is well directed,has great black and white photography.LINDA DARNELL,RICHARD WIDMARK and SIDNEY POITIER in his film debut are all good.

I am SUCH a big fan of Richard Widmark, he's my favorite actor, and SO underappreciated (Well,at least in my opinion)I'm thrilled this has finally been released on video because it's not only a landmark film - it's a great one. Also of course we have the chance to see the brilliant debut of Sidney Poitier and he is very powerful. But Richard is just mesmerising playing a character so convincingly different from the way he really was. The storyline has already been recapped by others, suffice to say, this is a slice of history that pulls no punches in tone and language of the racial tensions of 1950s America. I am sure as with the film Pinky, the studio took a risk with this release. Even if you are not a rabid fan of Richard (or Sidney!)this film holds up over repeat viewings, and so is worth having in your collection.

this was Poitier's first film role and a powerful one. Sidney poitier gives an excellent performance for his his film debut. it's a shame that he didn't receive at least 2nd billing. of course this is probably due to the era the film was released (1950). in addition to Poitier's stellar performance, Richard Widmark also gives an outstanding performance of his own, another early film appearance. Widmark assumes the role of a hateful bigot so well, one can't resist loathing him for his detestable racial ignorance. all actors involved are equally as great. don't miss this one.

as for the DVD, excellent transfer.

"No Way Out" raised the bar in the social conscience film trend a few years after "Crossfire" and "Gentlemen's Agreement" received multiple Oscar nominations for condemning anti-Jewish prejudice in America. This is an assuredly heavy-handed polemic on racism that nevertheless stands the test of time. Luther Brooks (Sidney Poitier) is a young black doctor who has resisted his family's pressure to go into private practice in order to get more experience at the county hospital. One fateful evening, he replaces a sick intern in the prison ward. The intensely racist Biddle Brothers, Ray (Richard Widmark) and Johnny, are brought in for treatment of gun shot wounds to the legs. But Johnny is confused, unresponsive, and clearly suffering from some neurological malady. When he dies during Dr. Brooks' attempt to diagnose him, Ray accuses Brooks of murdering his brother and determines to muster all the racial hatred in his neighborhood to avenge Johnny.

"No Way Out" is sometimes called "film noir", but I take issue with that classification, because this is not even a crime film. And Dr. Brooks, though trapped by unfortunate coincidences and events beyond his control, is too squeaky clean to be a noir protagonist. But I do think that the "noir" elements help "No Way Out" overcome its dated proselytizing and idealized conceptions of Dr. Brooks to remain truly compelling even 60 years after it was made. This was Sidney Poitier's first film, so he was not given billing above the titles in spite of his starring role. Richard Widmark and Linda Darnell are no less the stars of "No Way Out", though. They have the best lines and pivotal scenes. Richard Widmark took the role of racist Ray Biddle reluctantly, as he was leaning toward leading man roles at this point in his career. But Widmark played some of the most memorable villains in cinematic history. Vile, vicious, and supremely manipulative Ray Biddle is no exception. Widmark's ability to convey uncertainty and insecurity with just his eyes is extraordinary.

Linda Darnell plays Johnny Biddle's ex-wife Edie whom Dr. Brooks and the Chief Medical Resident (Stephen McNally) implore to convince Ray to allow an autopsy on his brother. In some sense, this is her film, as Edie is the character who has an arc. She's white trash from the rough Beaver Canal neighborhood who has moved only one step up and out, always in danger of succumbing to her roots. Darnell looks great and spouts some terrific hard-boiled dialogue. The dialogue in "No Way Out", co-written by Lesser Samuels and director Joseph Mankiewicz, vacillates between the hardened, cynical repartee of film noir and loaded speech that the actors struggle to deliver with credibility. There is more than one social ideology represented: The ideas that Edie can overcome her roots and that Ray is a product of his environment join the calls for racial equality. But the dialogue and characterizations of "No Way Out" are so compelling that we don't mind the lack of subtlety in the social message.

The DVD (20th Century Fox 2006): Bonus features include a "Publicity Gallery" of 15 b&w ads for the movie, a "Photo Gallery" of 44 production and publicity stills, 2 short "Fox Movietone News" segments, a theatrical trailer (2 1/2 min), and an audio commentary by film noir historian Eddie Muller. The "Fox Movietone News" segments are coverage of Linda Darnell selling tickets to the New York premiere of the move (30 sec) and of Richard Widmark imprinting his hands in cement outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood (20 sec). Eddie Muller leaves more "air" in his commentary than usual so that we don't miss the dialogue that was so controversial in 1950. It's a good commentary that discusses actors, performances, and themes scene-by-scene but is not as packed with information as Muller's commentaries sometimes are. Subtitles are available for the film in English and Spanish.

For the time in which this film was release, it was ground breaking-or was it? All the movies prior to the 70s that had a black person in the main cast was about the same thing: trying to humanize the black race to whites. You can find movies in the 40s, 50s and 60s, trying to hammer in the same theme. It reached a point that for a couple of decades that was all Poitiers films were about. Insert a profession usually reserved for whites (up until those times) Doctor, a cop, a potiential land owner and then watch the faces of the white people twist with rage. If they wanted this film to be REALLY risky, have the autopsy report state that Dr. Brooks made a mistake. What would have been the message then? Aren't black doctors allowed to make mistakes the same as white doctors? Why have it make the point of Dr. Brookes being an exceptional doctor? His wife boasting about his straight A's and so on and so on. Don't get me wrong. This is a good film, but the theme and its message wasn't as groundbreaking as they claimed. It was just one that needed to be hammered home until the idea took. Still great performances by all the cast members. The script, though predictable, is still good. Overall, this is a film worth your time.

"No Way Out" has to be applauded for tackling the subject of racial tension at a time when it probably wasn't fashionable or commercially viable. That said, despite moments of searing truths, the film only treats it's subject matter superficially. To my mind it never gets to the root causes of institutionalized racism. The makers seem to slough it off to class resentment between blacks and the white underclass who are depicted here as wild eyed yahoos, none worse than an over-the-top Richard Widmark. Never mind that real power is wielded by the elites like the industrialists, the medical profession, and the film industry. Despite these quibbles there is alot to recommend here, not least of all a towering performance by a young Sidney Poitier as the intern caught in the middle of the racial maelstrom. Despite his youth, Poitier's radiant screen presence is much in evidence here and suggests the greater work that was yet to come for him.

shows just how stupid being a racist really is. This is a terrific movie. Richard calls Sidney character a black rat and other racial slurs. If you not thick skin you won't like this movie. I loved it. It showed what rasicm is all about stupidty. What they did was expose it. Good for them. If you watch it you will see. A very good classic movie.