Martha Wilcox It feels as though Burt Lancaster is the tougher man in this film as he gets to punch Kirk Douglas and win. They don't really fight it out like John Wayne and Randolph Scott in 'The Spoilers', and for that reason this film disappoints just like 'Gunfight at the OK Corral'. There is tension between Lancaster and Douglas but their scenes together are just talking heads. Lancaster wins the physical war with his fists, whereas wins the intellectual war of words by outsmarting Lancaster. It is unsatisfactory because they would continue to be talking heads in 'Gunfight at the OK Corral' and 'Seven Days in May'. This is why it is not a movie, but rather a collaboration between two talented actors who are not maximising their potential together.

T Y I Walk Alone is interesting in that its very rare for a noir story to even acknowledge the previous era (prohibition). The story here overtly bridges the gap between the 1930s gangster film and the new post-war noirs. Lancaster took the fall for some bootlegging, and is out after a 14 yr sentence. Neat idea.Particularly clever and effective is a tense confrontation between stoolie Lancaster and Douglas in ascent, which underscores just how corporate and despicable gang activity had become in the intervening years. Lancaster (as in Criss Cross) is completely hapless throughout the story, and it's never more embarrassing for him than when he gathers some henchmen and bursts in on Douglas to demand his portion of the bank, only to falter because he can't understand the deliberately circumlocutious structure of the new organization. Condescending Kirk Douglas and Wendell Corey explain it to him point by point, humiliating him and gaining the upper hand. You feel bad for him but you can't help laughing, as the future of the nation is staring you back in the face; Corporate crime and plausible deniability. It's a great little scene.Some of the shots are nice, as you'd expect from noir. But in a distinctly non-noir angle, Lancaster never gets the jump on anyone, and requires the pity of a doting, supportive woman (Lizbeth Scott) for the entirety of the movie. Scott is second best material as usual (She's awkward). But, it's a decent B noir.

MARIO GAUCI Three of the stars from DESERT FURY (1947) – Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott and Wendell Corey – were reunited in another, marginally superior noir that is most notable today for marking the first of seven screen pairings between Lancaster and Kirk Douglas. Although it was still very early in their careers, they had already become typecast as, respectively, the jilted, ex-con hero and the suave, slimy villain and this film has them reprising those characterizations – albeit less effectively than their prototype seen earlier in THE KILLERS (1946) and OUT OF THE PAST (1947); the same goes for Scott and Corey who both share a divided loyalty towards the two male leads. I WALK ALONE can also be said to have kick-started the directorial career of former technician Byron Haskin which lasted for twenty versatile years; unfortunately, that fact is borne out by the surprising lack of pace (which makes the film seem longer than its 98-minute running-time) and a rather weak climactic confrontation. Even so, the film is most interesting in the way it depicts the change in crime syndication (from streetwise toughness in the bootlegging Depression days to business acumen in the capitalist post-WWII era) that occurred during the fourteen years Lancaster spent behind bars: this is highlighted in a sharply amusing sequence when accountant Corey wrecks Lancaster's dream of owning half of Douglas' business empire (as they had verbally agreed on all those years before) by disclosing in "double-talk" the complex legal relationship that exists between the various companies owned by Douglas!

theowinthrop I like I WALK ALONE. It is an interesting example of film noir, but it also has curious slants of it's own. It is also one of the first pairings of Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster in film. Douglas and Lancaster were so well balanced in their movies that they were interchangeable. While in most of them they were allies or buddies (THE DEVIL'S DESCIPLE, GUNFIGHT AT O.K. CORRAL, TOUGH GUYS) they could alternate as the villain against each other. It's hard to find a pair of actors who did this as well or at all. Matthau and Lemmon usually were in comedies (although they both could be at loggerheads on some ethical points or past history). Grant and Ralph Bellamy are normally love rivals (Bellamy being hopelessly outclassed). Crosby and Fitzgerald are usually in a battle of the generations, and a confrontation of two street smart types. And so it goes in other male pairings.SPOILERS AHEAD: Here, Kirk is the villain - he got away with a large stolen cash prize in a crime back in the 1920s/early 1930s. His partner Burt got caught, and was sent to prison for 14 years (actually rather lucky for him - a cop was killed). Burt is now out of prison, and he discovers that Kirk is quite a social success. He took the money and used it to build a gang, but he was smart enough to use his profits to get a legitimate sheen to his image: he's a successful "nightclub" owner with many wealthy friends and customers. One of the best moments early in the film is when Lancaster sees newspapers and magazines that show Douglas swanning with the swells (even wearing top hat and overcoat in a rotogravure shot). Not quite like the good old Dillinger days, or even Al Capone.Other films had touched upon the "legitimization" of mob money as time passed. In THE ROARING TWENTIES, while Jimmy Cagney is building up his hooch empire he invests the money in a legitimate taxi company (an early example of money laundering), only to lose everything when the stock market crashes. Ironically, his untrustworthy second-in-command (Humphrey Bogart) never diversifies but keeps to the illegal activities. He not only survives the crash, but he profits by it (taking over Cagney's property - though he contemptuously leaves him one taxicab). But even he tries to pick up a better public image - you see him practicing his putting in his office at one point.Lancaster confronts Douglas in his nightclub, only to be brought into the modern world of organized crime. All Lancaster really wants is his half of the original money. But as Douglas' accountant, Wendell Corey, says they can't just give him the cash as it has been invested throughout Douglas's financial empire. Lancaster is left without cash, and led a chase as well by Douglas using Lizbeth Scott as femme fatale bait. He ends up getting beaten (by Mike Mazurki). But he remains determined to beat Douglas and get his share.He does in a manner that today would not pass muster. He entraps Douglas by pretending to have him at the end of a loaded gun, forcing Douglas to make a confession before the police. Douglas, naturally frightened, does admit information that only the criminal involved in the crime would have known, but at the end, he sneers at Lancaster saying that the confession was gotten under duress. But then Lancaster shows his gun was empty. Civil libertarians today would denounce this trick, saying the confession was tainted. In 1948 it was perfectly legal.