Act of Violence

This fine film noir melodrama from MGM allowed its talented young contract director Fred Zinnemann to flex his creative muscles. There's a superb cast, including two of Hollywood's finest second league heavyweights, Robert Ryan and Van Heflin, the latter particularly brilliant as an officer who, while he was a prisoner of war, betrayed his men. Ryan is his fellow prisoner who seeks revenge. Janet Leigh is wasted as Heflin's worried wife, but there's a remarkable performance from the redoubtable Mary Astor as a bar-room prostitute. All told, a grim but satisfying movie that never quite rises above its co-feature status; indeed, on its original British release it was double-billed with Abraham Polonsky's Force of Evil starring John Garfield - now there's a programme at the flicks!