Cry Vengeance ** (1954, Mark Stevens, Martha Hyer, Skip Homeier, Joan Vohs, Douglas Kennedy) – Classic Movie Review 8915

Director Mark Stevens’s routine, semi-tough 1954 film noir thriller Cry Vengeance also stars Stevens as violent ex-cop Vic Barron, who hunts the villain, apparently Tino Morelli (Douglas Kennedy), who framed him and put him in jail and murdered his wife and child.

Naturally, Barron burns with vengeance after his release from prison, and the trail leads to isolated Ketchikan, Alaska, where Barron finds Morelli hiding under a new identity, tavern owner Peggy Harding (Martha Hyer) and killer Roxey Davis (Skip Homeier) and his sozzled moll Lily Arnold (Joan Vohs).

We have seen it all often before, and it brings the classic The Big Heat to mind, to Cry Vengeance’s disadvantage. But the neat performances, fast handling, good film noir pulp atmosphere, unique Alaskan setting, and driving music score by Paul Dunlap all combine to lift it a notch or two above the Fifties B-movie thriller norm.

Also in the cast are Don Haggerty, Warren Douglas, Mort Mills, Cheryl Callaway, Lewis Martin, Dorothy Kennedy, Richard Deacon, Edward Clark, Bert Stevens and John Doucette.

Cry Vengeance is directed by Mark Stevens, runs 82 minutes, is made by Allied Artists Pictures, released by Allied Artists Pictures (1954) (US) and Associated British-Pathé (1955) (UK), is written by Warren Douglas and George Bricker, is shot in black and white by William A Sickner, is produced by Lindsley Parsons, and is scored by Paul Dunlap, with Art Direction by Dave Milton.

The Ketchikan airline Ellis Air was an authentic company founded by Bob Ellis in 1936.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8915

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