Cry Vengeance (1954)

A former detective, scarred physically & emotionally by the car bomb that killed his wife & child, is released from prison after serving time for a crime he didn't commit. All he lives for now is vengeance, and he'll travel to the ends of the earth to get it, no matter what the cost ...

Mark Stevens is equally effective as director & actor in this strong, unusual film noir. Behind the camera, he works with economy & cool precision, allowing for a touch of warmth from some of the supporting characters, and making the most of the Alaskan background; onscreen, he's cold, obsessive fury incarnate, very nearly destroying what remains of his own humanity in his pursuit of justice.

Martha Hyer, one of the most beautiful blondes of the late 1950s/early 1960s, doesn't merely depend on her looks as the potential love interest. She brings subtlety, a touch of caution, and a genuine sensitivity to her part, making her role as a possible guide to redemption convincing & human. At the other end of the spectrum, Skip Homeier, so menacingly blond as to almost be albino, portrays a villain as leached of humanity as his hair is leached of color.

This is a sterling example of the solid B-movie, with an undercurrent of dark, unsettling energy that so many studio blockbusters of the time lacked. A shame it's not available on DVD -but the VHS is well worth finding for fans of this often powerful genre. Recommended!

Mark Stevens's character has every reason to seek vengeance at the start of the film. His wife and child have been killed and he's been framed. He's going to destroy the man who did it, except that the man he thinks murdered his family and framed him for a crime he didn't commit is someone else entirely. This is a driven plot and a well-motivated story. The bad characters have every reason to hide their guilty deeds and to stop the victim from finding out who the true murderer was.

One line in the film that touched me deeply was: "The older you get, the screwier it (life) gets." Boy! Isn't that the truth! This movie is entertaining, gripping and worth the time spent.

Buy Cry Vengeance (1954) Now

Directed by and starring Mark Stevens, CRY VENGEANCE is the story of a violent ex-cop who seeks revenge for the mob hit car bomb deaths of his wife and child, his facial scarring in that blast and subsequent wrongful three year incarceration at San Quentin.

Vic Barron (Stevens) travels to Ketchikan (known as Alaska's first city) in search of the elusive mobster Tino Morelli (Kennedy). Tino's girlfriend, tavern owner Peggy Harding (Hyer) finds the volatile Barron attractive. She truthfully tells him that his intended target had nothing to do with the killings or frame up, but Vic doesn't believe her. What he's not aware of however is that the actual bomber has followed him to Alaska from San Francisco.

As of 1/09, "Cry Vengeance" was not available on DVD.

Also recommended:

Mark Stevens is quite good as an FBI agent in pursuit of Richard Widmark in THE STREET WITH NO NAME (1948). (VHS edition) (DVD edition)

Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.

(6.2) Cry Vengeance (1954) Mark Stevens/Martha Hyer/Skip Homeier/Joan Vohs/Douglas Kennedy/Cheryl Calloway/Mort Mills/Don Haggerty/John Doucette (uncredited: Richard Deacon)

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