Cary Grant is very good in his role as Ernie Mott. Ethel Barrymore plays his mother in the movie and she is riveting and marvelous. Barry Fitzgerald is his usual fine self. The actor who played Jim Mordinoy--Coulouris I believe--had his character down to a finely honed edge. A truly memorable heavy. June Duprez who played Ada was superb. She was lovely, eloquently honest, and terrifically sexy.
For me it's hard to do much better than a Clifford Odets script. His dialogue always seems to sparkle with intelligence, wit, and a hard won wisdom that hasn't had all of its innocence destroyed by a brutal world.
The theme of the movie seems to revolve around a line that Ernie says a couple of times. Something to the effect that: "In this world you're either the fox or the hound. But what if you don't want to be either the fox or the hound? What then?" Or something along those lines. Ernie's task in this movie is express his love for his mother and Ada and also to find a "decent life" in this world.
The script and the cinemaphotography reflect a gray and bleak picture of the struggle for survival by working class people in the England of the 30's--shortly before the outbreak of WWII. It's really a typical Odets'critique of the brutality and heartlessness of western society. Regardless of your politics, though, if you like fine drama and brilliant dialogue, catch this movie. It won't lift you up, but it should educate your heart--the lonely one that is. ...