Edge of the City

Axel Nordman is unemployed; he’s also a deserter, and haunted by the memory of his brother’s accidental death. He finally finds some peace of mind when he is hired as a freight car loader. He makes friends with Tommy Tyler, a black fellow loader, but Tommy is killed in a fight with the shady foreman, Malik. Even though he risks revealing that he’s a deserter and also facing Malik’s revenge, Axel denounces the man to the police in honor of his friendship with Tommy.

“Metro was in a proxy fight at the time. They were involved in their internecine power struggles, and the film was finished before anyone knew what was going on. Edge of the City was a success d’esteem; but it didn’t make any money because they couldn’t get bookings on account of the racial issues.” (Martin Ritt)

regia/director Martin Ritt
soggetto/story dall’originale televisivo/from the TV play A Man Is Ten Feet Tall di/by Robert Alan Arthur
sceneggiatura/screenplay Robert Alan Arthur
fotografia/director of photography Joseph C. Brun
scenografia/set design Richard Sylbert
costumi/costume design Anna Hill Johnstone
montaggio/film editor Sidney Meyers
musica/music Leonard Rosenman
suono/sound James A. Gleason
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters John Cassavetes (Axel Nordmann), Sidney Poitier (Tommy Tyler), Jack Warden (Charles Malik), Kathleen Maguire (Ellen Wilson), Ruby Dee (Lucy Tyler), Val Avery (il fratello di Axel/Axel’s brother), Robert F. Simon (George Nordmann), Ruth White (Mrs Nordmann), William A. Lee (Davis), John Kellogg (detective), David Clarke (Wallace), Estelle Hemsley (la madre di Lucy/Lucy’s mother)
produttore/producer David Susskind
produzione/production David Susskind Productions, Jonathan Productions, Metro Goldwyn Mayer