raymond_chandler "Edge of the City" casts Sidney Poitier as a warehouse worker who befriends John Cassavetes' troubled loner. His ready laugh and casual manner belie a character of depth and fortitude. As Tommy Tyler, Poitier exudes kindness and grace, even as Jack Warden's Charlie tries to bully and intimidate him. Cassavetes was skeptical of Lee Strasberg's Method by 1957, and he plays it fast and loose as Axel, an Army deserter who cannot find his place in the world. "Edge" spends a considerable amount of time showing these two characters at work in a warehouse, and the incidents of harassment and horseplay ring equally true to anyone who has done time in the world of unskilled blue-collar labor. This is the first feature film directed by Martin Ritt, and the themes of male bonding (Hud) and workplace injustice (Norma Rae) are ones he would revisit during his illustrious career. Exemplary cinematography by Joseph C. Brun, and observant writing by Robert Alan Aurthur add to the verisimilitude of this examination of the everyday existence of men who toil anonymously in the background of urban life."You go with the lower forms, and you are down in the slime."

bkoganbing Although this small film kind of got lost in the wake of On The Waterfront, Edge Of The City can certainly hold its own with that star studded classic. It's another story about the docks and the code of silence that rules it.Next to the corrupt union that Lee J. Cobb ran in On The Waterfront, Jack Warden is really small time corruption. But he's real enough as the gang boss on one of the docks who intimidates the other workers by being handy with his fists and the bailing hook and he gets the rest to kickback part of their hard earned money. And it's all hard earned money in that job.One guy Warden can't intimidate is Sidney Poitier another gang boss and when he tries to intimidate newcomer John Cassavetes, Poitier takes him under his wing. The two develop quite the friendship and Poitier and his wife Ruby Dee even fix Cassavetes up with Kathleen Maguire.Warden is truly one loathsome creature and it's sad how by sheer force of personality and physical prowess he cows almost everyone else into submission. In that sense he's tougher than Lee J. Cobb who did have to rely on an impression collection of goons to enforce his will in On The Waterfront.Edge Of The City marked the big screen directorial debut of Martin Ritt who did a great job with a good cast of New York based players and spot on location cinematography. The film's low budget does show, but you're so impressed with the ensemble cast you don't really care.Cassavetes as the loner with a past and the hip and tough Poitier are both fine, but my personal favorite in this film is Ruby Dee. She should have gotten some award for her performance, her final scene with Cassavetes is outstanding.Catch this one if ever possible. I wish it were out on DVD or VHS.

Neil Doyle EDGE OF THE CITY is a waterfront drama with overtones of racial intolerance, a tough, gritty drama with strong performances by JOHN CASSAVETES, SIDNEY POITIER and JACK WARDEN, under Martin Ritt's knowing direction. Warden makes the most of an unsympathetic role as a longshoreman boss who harasses Poitier and Cassavetes, both just trying to make a living out of their waterfront jobs. Warden represents "the lowest form of life" in this screenplay.It's a sort of buddy flick, with the friendship between Cassavetes and Poitier accented throughout the first forty-five minutes before you get an inkling of where the plot is going. Behind it all, we know that Jack Warden and the workplace environment is going to steam up into some sort of confrontation--and all we know about Cassavetes is that he's hiding something in his past.We learn eventually that he's an Army deserter who has to keep his identity secret. At work, it's Warden who knows about his past--and therein lies the conflict that has to be resolved. An argument between Cassavetes and Warden leads to a lethal fight between Warden and Poitier, after which an investigation takes place with regard to Poitier's murder.The code of silence among the onlookers hinders the investigation but the final scene packs a powerful punch as Cassavetes gets even with Warden.Remarkably taut during the last fifteen minutes, there are strong performances from the men and RUBY DEE as Poitier's grief-stricken wife. Well worth watching.

ZAelonyRep This is a powerful film which seems to have never re-arisen after the Joe McCarthy censorship period. It influenced me as a Jewish teen-ager who had friends of various colors and whose father's family had suffered under the Fascist regimes in Europe during the second quarter of the Twentieth Century. Unlike the later rip-off, "On The Waterfront" which seemed to take some of the same themes and twist them to fit the enforced Hollywood political correctness of the time, it told its story direct and with respect for the characters and for the reality it fictionally reflected. It was an antidote to "Gone With the Wind", "Birth of a Nation", "Triumph of the Will" and so many other glorifiers of hatred and violence. I would place it alongside the recent German film (also virtually hidden in the US), "Rosenstrasse."I remember that the TV version, also black and white in format as well as story, was blacked out by some stations because the black hero's wife appeared white. As a young civil rights worker, it produced a conflict for me because on the one hand I was opposed to smoking cigarettes and on the other opposed the boycott in Georgia of a sponsor of the TV show, a major tobacco company (I no longer remember which one -- does anyone else?).I would love to find a CD of either the film or the TV show to let my sons see something that informed my opposition to racism universally (as opposed to only fighting racism against Jews) and recognition of the inherent connection between racism and militarism.