Act of Violence (1948 film)
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| Act of Violence | |
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| Directed by | Fred Zinnemann |
| Produced by | William H. Wright |
| Written by | Collier Young (story) Robert L. Richards |
| Starring | Van Heflin Robert Ryan Janet Leigh |
| Music by | Bronislau Kaper |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees |
| Editing by | Conrad A. Nervig |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | December 21, 1948 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 82 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Act of Violence is a 1948 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film noir drama/thriller motion picture starring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, with Mary Astor, and Phyllis Thaxter.
Directed by Fred Zinnemann, it was adapted for the screen by Robert L. Richards from a story by Collier Young.
82 mins.; black and white
Frank Enley (played by Heflin), a WWII soldier, returns home from the war after surviving a Nazi POW camp while the rest of his comrades have been murdered. What he does not know is that one of his prison mates, Joe Parkson (played by Ryan), has survived. Parkson is a mentally disturbed ex-soldier with a limp due to his time as a POW. He knows the secret Enley has been hiding, Enley helped the Nazis in exchange for food while a prisoner, and he is on a manhunt to destroy the so-called "war hero."
Enley, who is now married to the lovely Edith (played by Leigh), must confront his dark past and the truth that he's a coward not a war hero. Meanwhile, Parkson gets closer and closer to getting his revenge. Enley goes into hiding by leaving his confused wife behind and living on the lam.
Enley helps keep the killer away with the help of prostitute, Pat (played by Astor), and a hitman.
Critical reaction to this dark film today is mostly positive. Roger Westcombe, writing at Bighousefilm.com explains why the film is so unsettling: "Act of Violence... with a profundity, through its unsettling moral continuum, redolent not of Hollywood simplicities of good/evil but of the art one associates with Zinnemann’s European background. This contains a clue. Fred and his brother escaped their native Austria in 1938, but their parents, waiting for U.S. visas that never came, perished – separately – in concentration camps. The ‘survivor guilt’ this awful closing engendered must resemble the emotional see-saw ride which fiction like the ethical pendulum of Act of Violence can only start to expiate."
