Black & White World

No Way Out (1950)

I have noticed that a lot of classic films with themes of race relations just don’t tend to hold up well over the years—to modern audiences they just seem dated.  I don’t know why this is, why they can’t be viewed in the context that they were shot.  It makes me wonder if Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing will seem as dated in another 20 years’ time.

I was a little non-plussed with No Way Out, mostly because it has a very “made for TV” feel to it; it has a staginess that really looks like a Dragnet episode in many ways, with characters standing around and declaiming lines.  The dialogue and the characterizations do seem dated, but it should seem dated—it was made in 1950, and frankly, for 1950, it’s way ahead of its time.  That didn’t occur to me until well after the movie was over, though—the movie itself, without commenting on its themes and whether or not they were forward-thinking for 1950, the movie itself bored me a bit while it was on.

Both Sidney Poitier (pitifully billed FOURTH) and Richard Widmark were excellent in their respective roles—Widmark a little too over the top at times, sure, but still fun to watch.  Steven McNally as Poitier’s mentor was a little too bland.  Linda Darnell was good.  The inclusion of Darnell and Widmark in the cast seemed to be enough to bill this movie as a film noir—it is most decidedly not.

Most interesting to me was the promotional materials included on the DVD—the trailer just barely shows a passing glimpse of Poitier, and makes absolutely no mention of race relations at all.  The poster gallery didn’t show ONE poster with Poitier’s picture on it—most feature Widmark and Darnell in some fake embrace (which to my knowledge didn’t even happen).  As you can see, the one accompanying this blog only shows a glimpse of Darnell’s eyes—there were a few varying on this theme.  The studio clearly didn’t think the movie would sell on its own merits.