vincentlynch-moonoi I disagree with the general trend of reviews for this film. I think it's a very strong film. However, it has the feel of a small film...but I think that's what was required here because it's a film about a very small town. Small town -- small film. That's a match.At first glance, it looks as if the plot is going to be pretty simple. Newspaper editor is arrested in a small hick town on false charges and will lead a crusade to clean up the town. Until he uncharacteristically steps back and decides to leave his town completely. Huh? Walter Pidgeon running away? Fortunately, someone takes up the crusade -- but not Pidgeon's son-in-law, a county prosecutor. Hmmmm. A family that has high ideals until they're put to the test? But someone has to lead the charge. So that falls to John Hodiak, a state prosecutor. And he faces a brick wall because everyone is afraid to testify against the small town thugs.Will the newspaper editor testify? And if not, why not? Today's audiences may not believe that there were places like this back before the 1960s. People did sometimes virtually disappear.Walter Pidgeon is quite good here as the newspaper editor; I wonder how he liked a film where for at least part of the time he appeared to be a coward. John Hodiak is very good as the state attorney. Thomas Gomez is good...and disgusting...as the crooked sheriff. Karl Malden is good as an honest cop.I don't find a lot here to criticize. The ending gets -- as a couple have already said -- a little preachy and too idealistic. And, I think they could have made more earlier in the film about the dilemma facing Walter Pidgeon.I liked it and recommend it.

LeonLouisRicci MGM Decided late in the Game to start Producing these Types of Street-Level, Contemporary, Crime and Corruption Movies that RKO and WB had been doing quite Effectively for Years. But as was Almost Always the Case, They just didn't have it, in both Style and Tone.This One is not Pure Film-Noir but does have some of the Elements. The Jail Room and Hideout Scenes are the Best. The Actors do give it some Noir Feel, more than most of the Set-Ups and there is Enough Sleaziness to give the Film Gravitas.The Final Act Courtroom Scenes pretty much put an End to the Edginess, Concluding with a Straight Forward and Preachy Blandness. Overall worth a View for the Better Parts but Pales in Comparison to the more Hard-Boiled, Gritty Stuff that was Around at the Time.

Michael Others have summed up the plot in far more detail; so suffice to say, this MGM second-feature has Pigeon taking centre stage in a Smalltown USA, man-against-the-mob story of a newspaper editor getting bogged down in the mire of police corruption he's battling to expose.Despite being relatively full of incident the action is not exactly rivetingly staged, but then the script allocates much more time to wordy exposition than it does the kind of noir-ish trappings that might otherwise befit this type of plot.That said there's a full rogue's gallery of a B-cast embodying themes of wasted lives and silent witnesses which, for the running time, was enough to carry this viewer through to the compellingly executed courtroom climax.

John Seal Dealing with police corruption in a small American city, The Sellout isn't all that far away from films like The Phenix City Story or Kansas City Confidential. Walter Pidgeon plays a crusading journalist trying to get the goods on bent sheriff Thomas Gomez before Gomez gets the goods on him. The MGM cast is solid throughout, including John Hodiak as the reluctant out of town prosecutor, Karl Malden as the policeman assisting him, and good ol' Whit Bissell as a whistleblower. There's a small role for Audrey Totter--whose place in the credits implies a more significant part--and oily Everett Sloane is excellent as the misguided local lawyer. There's not much original here, but the film takes itself seriously and reminds the viewer of a time when it was possible for independent journalism to hang the bad guys out to dry.