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Best movie of this year hands down!

Such a frustrating disappointment

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

At the time - mid-late forties - they were churning out movies of this genre and this standard Hershy Bars, today they're harder to find than Auk eggs, which makes this doubly precious. There's so much that's right about it that it's tough to find a flaw. Even the usually insipid Lizbeth Scott turns in a half-decent performance and if Wendell Corey is as wooden as ever at least he is a pleasant walnut burr. This was the first of seven teamings for Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster and they started as they meant to go on, Kirk the smooth schemer and Burt the starry-eyed bruiser and a good time is had by all not least the audience.

I Walk Alone (1948)Wow, this should have been great. Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas alone make a great combination. Throw in Lizabeth Scott, who practically owns the archetype of a film noir leading woman (which isn't to say she's the best at it, for sure). But there are two huge problems. The script, the story, is just too thin and old hat to matter--a club owner, an ex-con, a torch song singer, and some old scores to settle. Could have been a contender, maybe. Looming larger is something you don't always see so clearly--bad direction. It shows in a lot of ways, the biggest being great actors (all three) who are at their worst. It's really a shock, if you like these people. Even the photography varies, sometimes dramatic (there are some great sets, for sure) and sometimes static and functional.Now, it's not a disaster. And there is an interesting angle to the movie that echoes the movies more than real life. There is an attempt to revive the old Prohibition gangster feel. In fact, they work a time warp into the story by having Lancaster play bootlegger who was jailed in the early 1930s, and just got out in 1947. So he still has the old gangster mentality. Douglas avoided jail and for fourteen years has been semi-legit. The clash of eras ends up being the real height of the movie. Even the clash of desires (both men want the compliant singer, Scott) isn't enough to lift those scenes.

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.

"I Walk Alone" is a wonderful example of film-noir cinematography. The high contrast, stark lighting, and interesting angles of film-noir are used very artistically and tastefully without ever calling undue attention to itself. Unfortunately, the movie goes downhill from there. As one would expect, Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster manage to be somewhat entertaining, but they are greatly hampered by a lackluster and painfully predictable script, perfunctory direction, and a leading lady who isn't capable of creating the type of tension and chemistry which her role requires.