Mama Lorenzo’s boys grew up tough on the bustling New York streets. Nick (William Lundigan) set his course for a decent life and got a summa cum laude degree. Joe (john Garfield), mixed up in crime, got three years in a penitentiary. Now Joe has come back to mama and the old neighborhood. He has his check-kiting girlfriend Laurie (Brenda Marshall) with him and some scores to settle - and he never imagines his girl will soon be drawn to the decent life and to Nick. The gangster genre and social-conscience filmmaking, both specialties of the Warner studio, combine in this fast-moving film that’s been likened to MGM’s Manhattan Melodrama. Garfield, whose own roots somewhat mirrored the film’s early scenes of kids growing up in the tenements, is a coiled fury as Joe. “You ain’t his kind of people. You’re my kind,” he tells Laurie. She knows she can change her world. Joe may be hopelessly mired in his.
Language: English
