The Threat

A late 1940s movie about a hardened criminal (Charles McGraw) who escapes from prison, and before he flees the country, wants to take revenge on the District Attorney and the cop who caught him, as well as figure out who set him up.

McGraw isn't just the main piece here, he's almost the only piece. Everyone else is cowed or intimidated by him, pushed around with little resistance. He doesn't play Red Kluger as being crazy or anything, just coldly determined and indifferent enough to everyone else's fate you can believe he would kill any of them, including the men in his own gang, with no hesitation.

There's a bit where one of his goons complains his watch has stopped, and asks what time it is so he can re-set it. Red asks to see it, then smashes it, telling him, 'Now you don't need know what time it is.' There's nothing that says he got any enjoyment out of it. He's sending the guy a message to stop griping about how long they've been there.

The film plays with the tension of Red not knowing who set him up. He suspects a singer and brings her along, while she protests innocence and tries to pin the blame on Red's partner, who got away clean to Mexico with the money. That partner is supposed to be flying in to pick them up, but the wait drags on, and tempers fray, and you start to wonder if he's going to show up or not. And what Red will do if he doesn't, since there's nothing he can do to the guy if he stays south of the border.

It's barely over an hour long, and that's with some padding about the cop's wife realizing he's been abducted because of a conversation they had about baby names. It doesn't result in anything, since the situation is settled before the cops get their act together, but it doesn't detract from the main story too much.