Search
What's Hot
Day-by-Day Fall Schedule
Idol Winner Speaks!
Jim Parsons Comes Out
Game of Thrones Star's Sex Stare

Edge Of Doom

1950, Movie, NR, 99 mins

Edge Of Doom: Review

starstarstarstar
A dark, gloomy, often depressing film, EDGE OF DOOM is nevertheless a powerful portrait of a mentally unbalanced youth, Granger, who, when his impoverished mother dies, begs the local priest, Vermilyea, for a lavish funeral mass. The narrow-minded priest refuses and, in a fit of rage, Granger crushes his skull with a heavy crucifix. He is almost identified by a witness, but suspicion falls instead on Stewart, a petty crook living with moll Jergens, who was also seen in the neighborhood at the time of the priest's murder. Andrews is the priest who takes over the poor parish following Vermilyea's death. He launches his own investigation, which rankles detective Keith. He learns that Vermilyea had refused to bury Granger's father in hallowed ground after he committed suicide and that Granger had afterwards been hostile to the Catholic Church. Granger is found praying before his mother's body by Andrews and, confronted by the priest, he confesses the murder, saying he will go to the police if he is permitted to attend his mother's funeral, a request later granted by authorities. This raw drama was pummeled by critics when first released, which caused Goldwyn (who had paid $150,000 for the book rights) to withdraw the film and bring in Ben Hecht, the highest-paid screenwriter in the business, to fix up the script. The killing of a priest has always been sensitive material, as well as priests dealing with murderers in or out of the confessional, as in Hitchcock's misfiring I CONFESS. Hecht wrote new, provocative dialog and reworked the story line so that the perspective was off killer Granger and on priest Andrews, who narrates the story from a softer angle. Charles Vidor, then doing preproduction work on HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, was pulled in to shoot additional scenes to conform to Hecht's rewrite; the overall additions lifted the film considerably out of the mediocre. Goldwyn, ever promotion-minded, had Granger, in one scene, flee his crime by running past a movie theater, its marquee clearly showing the title of another actual Goldwyn film, OUR VERY OWN, starring, of all people, Farley Granger! leave a comment
Are You Watching?
Edge Of Doom
Loading ...
Advertisement

Our Partners

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. American Idol
  2. NCIS
  3. Big Bang Theory
  4. Voice
  5. Person of Interest
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Jessica Simpson
  2. Khloe Kardashian
  3. Kate Middleton
  4. Maria Menounos
  5. Kim Kardashian
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. Avengers
  2. Battleship
  3. The Dictator
  4. Dark Shadows
  5. What To Expect When You're Expecting
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Revenge
  2. The Big Bang Theory
  3. Modern Family
  4. Days of our Lives
  5. Young and the Restless
more top videos