In a small, racially mixed town, a little girl is playing hooky out in a field. She falls into a deep, abandoned well. When the parents discover her missing, they call the police, who begin searching for her. When a stranger is reported as having bought her flowers, he's pulled in for questioning. It's Harry Morgan, who claims he's in town for a few hours and thought he'd say hello to his uncle, Barry Kelley, who owns most of the town. Word goes out that he's going to be let free because he's White and the little girl is Black. The town starts to spiral into a race riot.
It's the last movie produced by Leo Popkin, best remembered as the producer of D.O.A.; he co-directs, along with the movie's writer, Russell Rouse. With a cast consisting of actors who are not well known, there's an air of reality to the entire movie, and a long, tense, series of scenes, of mobs forming, of uncertainty, that provide an air of real tension that makes this a taut, suspenseful movie.
Its largely forgotten, but there's a lot here that makes me think that Billy Wilder saw it and turned it into an exercise in cynicism for ACE IN THE HOLE. The two would make a disturbing double bill.
It's the last movie produced by Leo Popkin, best remembered as the producer of D.O.A.; he co-directs, along with the movie's writer, Russell Rouse. With a cast consisting of actors who are not well known, there's an air of reality to the entire movie, and a long, tense, series of scenes, of mobs forming, of uncertainty, that provide an air of real tension that makes this a taut, suspenseful movie.
Its largely forgotten, but there's a lot here that makes me think that Billy Wilder saw it and turned it into an exercise in cynicism for ACE IN THE HOLE. The two would make a disturbing double bill.