Arthur Miller's powerful drama gets a somewhat shabby production here by a consortium of Italian and French filmmakers. Although the story is set in Brooklyn (location shots were done there), the interiors were all shot in Paris, with a cast of French, Italian, and American actors.
Vallone, who played the role in the Parisian version of the play, is an Italian-American longshoreman who has come from Sicily to earn his living. Vallone is married to Stapleton (why she doesn't have the same thick Italian accent is never explained), and the two of them have raised Lawrence,
their niece, since she was a baby. There has been a great deal of talk about "submarines" (which is the term for the illegal immigrants), and when two of them arrive at the Red Hook home of Vallone and Stapleton, problems begin. Pellegrin and Sorel are the "subs," and Vallone resents the obvious
attraction Lawrence and Sorel have for each other. He questions Sorel's intentions and wonders if the man is talking about marriage to Lawrence out of real love or because a union with her will guarantee his US citizenship. All of this is to hide his own attraction for Lawrence, which borders on
incestuous. Lawrence refuses to be put off by Vallone's entreaties, so Vallone says that Sorel is a homosexual. To prove his point, he kisses Sorel on the lips (now we begin to wonder whether or not Vallone is bisexual as well as incestuous). Instead of turning Lawrence against Sorel, this moves
her even closer to the young man, and they start talking seriously about marriage. Vallone can't bear the thought of losing Lawrence and informs on Sorel and Pellegrin to the immigration office. The young men are arrested and taken away, but not before Pellegrin spits in Vallone's face and brands
him as a fink. It all seems bleak until a local attorney springs Sorel out of jail to marry Lawrence. Pellegrin has no such luck and is scheduled to be shipped back to Italy. He is released on bail and goes immediately to Vallone's home, where the most dramatic scene of the film takes place. The
angry deportee forces Vallone to his knees and, while friends and family watch, makes the man recant all he's done. Not satisfied with that, Pellegrin slays Vallone by putting a huge longshoreman's hook into the man's chest.
Although ostensibly an Italian story, it could have been any ethnic background that provided the stage for the drama. The lack of money spent on the film resulted in some very long and stagy takes. Vallone, Sorel, and Pellegrin are superb, but the rest of the cast appears to be from another play.
Stapleton is, at best, bland, with none of the fire that an Anna Magnani might have brought to the role. Pellegrin's character is perhaps the most interesting in that he is a married man who has left his wife and family and risked imprisonment in order to make enough money to bring his flock to
the US. His anger and his ultimate murder of Vallone seem justified. In small roles, note Harvey Lembeck and Vince Gardenia, who went on to do memorable work in many films and TV series. This was Lumet's fifth feature assignment after a successful career in TV, but it did not measure up to some of
his earlier work (THE FUGITIVE KIND, 12 ANGRY MEN) or much of his later work (DOG DAY AFTERNOON, SERPICO, and NETWORK). leave a comment
