SIDE STREET

Shortly after they made "They Live By Night", Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell started in this intricate and brilliantly plotted noir for Anthony Mann, (doing a superb job in an urban setting before the westerns and epics that made his name). It's a corker of a B-Movie and almost no-one has heard of it. Sidney Boehm provided the taut, economical script that finds Granger as a young petty thief way in over his head when he 'accidentally' steals $30,000 of blackmail money. There isn't a redundant moment in the picture which moves at lightening speed and is magnificently shot on location by the great Joseph Ruttenberg. The first-rate supporting cast includes James Craig, Paul Kelly, Charles McGraw, Harry Bellaver and the great Jean Hagen as a nightclub singer. I would call this a cult movie if only it were better known; seek it out immediately.