film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
film directed by
Hugo Haas
Hugo Haas (19 February 1901 – 1 December 1968) was a Czech film actor, director and writer. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1926 and 1962, as well as directing 20 films between 1933 and 1962.
Life and career
Haas was born in B ...
John Agar
John George Agar Jr. (January 31, 1921 – April 7, 2002) was an American film and television actor. He is best known for starring alongside John Wayne in the films ''Sands of Iwo Jima'', '' Fort Apache'', and ''She Wore a Yellow Ribbon''. In hi ...
Plot
A
death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...
inmate has one final request before his impending
hanging
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...
: he wants to spend the night with a woman. The police bring him a
suicidal
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and subs ...
prostitute
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
. After a night of lovemaking, the two are married by the prison chaplain. Just before going to the
gallows
A gallows (or scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended (i.e., hung) or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sacks ...
, he describes a dream he had where the rope breaks during the hanging, the death bell rings, and he is freed. As he prays for his miracle the death bell tolls and the film fades to black.
John Agar
John George Agar Jr. (January 31, 1921 – April 7, 2002) was an American film and television actor. He is best known for starring alongside John Wayne in the films ''Sands of Iwo Jima'', '' Fort Apache'', and ''She Wore a Yellow Ribbon''. In hi ...
as Joe Cardos
*
Frank DeKova
Frank de Kova (March 17, 1910 – October 15, 1981) was an American character actor in films, stage, and TV.
Biography
De Kova was born in New York City. He was a teacher at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group. He ...
as Priest
* Dallas Boyd as Warden
* Steffi Sidney as Clara
*
Mel Welles
Mel Welles (February 17, 1924 – August 19, 2005) was an American film actor and director. His best-remembered role may be that of hapless flower shop owner Gravis Mushnick in the 1960 low-budget Roger Corman dark comedy, ''The Little Shop of ...
as First Guard
*
Harry Guardino
Harry Guardino (December 23, 1925 – July 17, 1995) was an American actor whose career spanned from the early 1950s to the early 1990s.
Biography
Guardino was born to an Italian family on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and raised in Bro ...
Arlene Harris
Arlene Harris (July 7, 1896 – June 12, 1976) was a Canadian-born American radio, film, and television actress. (Another source gives her date of birth as July 7, 1898.) She was best known for her role as "the human chatterbox" on Al Pearce's ...
as Proprietress
* Kay Riehl as Warden's Wife
*
Jan Englund
Jan Lowell ( Englund; August 23, 1927 – January 16, 2018) was an American screenwriter and actress known for her work on exploitation films from the 1950s through the 1970s. She often worked alongside her husband, writer-actor Mark Lowell.
Aft ...
as Girl
* Pat Goldin as Dancing Comedian
Production
This was the second film to co-star Moore and Agar, who had appeared together in 1954's ''Bait'', which was also directed by
Hugo Haas
Hugo Haas (19 February 1901 – 1 December 1968) was a Czech film actor, director and writer. He appeared in more than 60 films between 1926 and 1962, as well as directing 20 films between 1933 and 1962.
Life and career
Haas was born in B ...
. Agar was a Universal contract player at the time of this film and Moore was on loan from
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
.
See also
*
List of American films of 1955
A list of American films released in 1955.
The United Artists film '' Marty'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1955.
A–B
C–D
E–H
I–L
M–R
S–Z
See also
* 1955 in the United States
External links
1955 filmsat ...