Based on a popular novel by Morton Thompson, directed with a sledgehammer by Kramer, this happens to be a decent film with another fabulous performance from Robert Mitchum - particularly when he loses it with the inept hospital director:
He seems to know exactly what he's doing as a doctor and surgeon. Edward and Edna Anhault adapted the novel.
Mitchum, Sinatra, Broderick Crawford and Lee Marvin were all big drinkers - Olivia de Havilland put up with their hijinks stoically. And the reason Gloria Grahame looks funny is that she had got into the habit of stuffing tissue paper under her upper lip because 'someone told her a thrust upper lip was sexy'!
Photographed by Franz Planer, music by George Antheil. The sight of an open beating heart must have been quite shocking for the time.
Charles Bickford is the country doctor. Lon Chaney Jr is Mitchum's drunkard dad. And eagle-eyed Q spotted Juanita Moore (uncredited) as Grahame's maid. An independent Stanley Kramer production released by United Artists.
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