Dark City (1950 film)

Plot

A group of hustlers take a man for $5000 in a poker game. When the man ends up killing himself, the heat is put on the gamblers in the game. The dead man's vengeful brother begins picking off the gamblers one by one.

Cast

Critical response

When the film was released, film critic for the New York Times, Bosley Crowther, applauded the work of newcomer Charlton Heston but panned the film, writing:

A new star named Charlton Heston — a tall, tweedy, rough-hewn sort of chap who looks like a triple-threat halfback on a midwestern college football team—is given an unfortunate send-off on the low and lurid level of crime in Hal Wallis' thriller, Dark City, which came to the Paramount yesterday. Apparently Mr. Heston, who has worked for the stage and video, has something more than appearance to recommend him to dramatic roles. He has a quiet but assertive magnetism, a youthful dignity and a plainly potential sense of timing that is the good actor's sine qua non. But in this 'clutching hand' chiller, he is called upon to play nothing more complex or demanding than a crooked gambler marked for doom.

In 2004, film critic Dennis Schwartz gave the film a mixed review, writing:

Veteran director William Dieterle (The Devil and Daniel Webster) has been dealt a bad hand by the weak script, but the talented cast play out the hand as best they could ... The dark mood is set by Victor Milner's excellent B&W photography. Heston's finely tuned nuanced performance, as a guy gone bad but who can be saved by love, gives the melodrama enough film noir qualities to get over but not enough to relieve it of its tedium.