No Way Out

Poitier's delivery is good, but it's all the other stuff that makes him great, his looks and reactions and just the general way he carries himself and gives his character the necessary complexity simply by reacting to everything else around him. Widmark is a great match as the heel, absolutely vicious and it's hard to imagine the role being played by anyone else. Together they take a script that, while strong, relies on good execution and give it life and humanity.

A tense, incisive racial issues movie, with Widmark playing the vilest character of his career He says some absolutely heinous shit, but it never seems gratuitious, exagerrated, or phony. Poitier in his first Hollywood role sets the standard for his career: powerful, intelligent and dignified. Linda Darnell is very good in it as well. A movie as explosive in its depiction of racial conflict at its time as Do the Right Thing was nearly 40 years later.

Not too preachy, and the performances are pretty hard-edged, particularly Richard Widmark's racist and Linda Darnell as his dead brother's girl.

1950 is considered to mark the end of Old Hollywood's "race film" era. I don't know what changed, possibly Faulkner's Nobel in Literature a year before, just as "Intruder in the Dust" came out, but Mankiewicz's "No Way Out" is a clear sign of black protagonists moving into the mainstream and white racism receiving focus. Perhaps most notably, segregation is depicted with even a scene or two in Luther's home in "negro town". Poitier and Ossie Davis make their debut, and Widmark ices the cake.

Not as a messagey as I feared, and just intelligent enough to make you wish it were a truly great movie.

An engaging story and a very strong debut for Poitier.

Very solid noir with strong performances from Poitier (first credit) and Widmark. The junkyard scene is great. Wish it had been a little longer. One of the issues with race relations films of this period, and this one is no exception, though, is that they go after the lowest hanging fruit on the racism spectrum. Widmark (effectively) plays a vehement racist who is more or less foaming at the mouth. In the period maybe it works better, but to modern eyes it can be a bit ham-fisted. Good, though.

Not bad.

Sharp anti-racism film with a superb cast (Poitier is classy, while Widmark is terrifyingly maniacal, and a huge shout-out to Amanda Randolph for being unforgettable in her supporting role as the main doctor's maid). For a movie with a strong message, it never feels heavy-handed.

Sidney Poitier a instant star in Richard Widmark's web of madness!

It starts off poorly as you're asked to root for the black hero because of his achievements--not his humanity. As a picture it is lacking: the overly ambitious script jumps from crime mystery to social drama to a Cape Fear style psychological thriller ending. The editing drags by staying on scenes too long. And the lackluster villain's racist remarks are always uninspired. Recommended if you want to see Hollywood address '50's racial issues and are okay with a title that doesn't make sense.

81.00

Em honra do centenário de Ossie Davis Filme #1 do dia. DVDRip no MakingOff.