Drugstore.com Coupons
Brooks is working in a prison hospital when two gas station robbers are brought in, Ray (Richard Widmark) and Johnny (Dick Paxton). Johnny goes into shock, and dies while Brooks is treating him. Ray, a malicious racist, accuses Brooks, who is black, of killing Johnny. Brooks seeks an autopsy of Johnny that will exonerate his procedures. Johnny refuses permission of the autopsy, which compels Brooks to seek permission from Johnny's presumed wife, Edie (Linda Darnell). Edie, raised in a racist environment, is unsure of what to do, which leaves her susceptible to ill-advised suggestions from Ray and his mute brother George (Harry Bellaver).
The story has nothing to do with the identically-titled 1987 Kevin Costner vehicle.
How others will see it. How I felt about it. This was the first film that featured both Ossie Davis and wife Ruby Dee. They went on to make many more together, including two Spike Lee entries, Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever.. No Way Out is better known as the first feature of Sidney Poitier's long career.
The story is remarkably progressive for a 1950 major studio release. No Way Out wasn't the earliest Hollywood film to depict white hatred toward blacks, but it was the first to focus on it obsessively. It even misinterprets white racism, which typically has greater elements of fear and privilege than hate.
Unusually, the film depicts a race riot, which the blacks win and it is implied that their actions were justified! Vigilante action by blacks against whites during the era of the Production Code, given a pass presumably because white police would side with their own race.
To a much lesser degree, No Way Out shows black hatred toward whites. Even Poitier, a sympathetic figure throughout, calls Ray a "white boy" through gritted teeth.
As in Gentlemen's Agreement, 'we' are educated by the script how not to be prejudiced. Early on, Dr. Wharton informs Dr. Brooks that he will be treated exactly the same as any other (i.e. white) intern. However, Wharton then proceeds to treat Brooks as protectively as if Brooks were his kid brother. He doesn't even mind when the on duty Brooks storms out of the hospital in a tantrum despite a wave of incoming critical injuries, all because (surprise, surprise) a white shows hatred toward him.
The turning point is also dramatic for Linda Darnell, whose character still harbors feelings for Johnny and Ray despite their abhorent behavior. Darnell is a bad girl trying to become good, a task made more difficult by the neighborhood she grew up in and the company she keeps.
The weakness of No Way Out is that it regularly goes too far out. Widmark is too despicable, Darnell is too indecisive, McNally is too loyal, and Poitier is too righteous. The film attempts to shock its audience by stereotyping lower income white men as malevolent racists. This is about as bad as the way blacks were portrayed in Hollywood films from the 1930s. Even the title is overdone, since there is a way out: education.