One Way Street

Director Fregonese has never made it anywhere near as much as the middle of my list of favorite directors, there is always some mediocrity about his work. In ONE WAY STREET he stitches together a mixed bag, part of which resembles a poor copy of TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948), notably the segment where Walter Huston saves a child in a Hispanic village. Mason does a good job in the thankless part of Dr. Matson but he cannot rescue it from a poor script, pedestrian photography and the absence of a counterweight to his quality acting: Dan Duryea goes "missing in action" for so long that his role becomes meaningless. One question harried me to the end: How did Duryea survive Dr Matson's poison while the latter and Toren were in Mexico for about a year if we never see Duryea get the antidote? Good thing that William Conrad provides the film's main surprise. Bad thing: Toren is physically gorgeous but her acting is substandard, and her lines below par. Basil Ruysdael as Father Moreno gives some quality support to Mason, but the Mexican heavies struck me as unconvincing, if not downright naif. I am a Mason fan and completist, so I am glad I saw it through but, as a whole, this production code venom-injected product does not deserve more than 5/10, especially because it becomes obvious that a happier ending would have made a difference. For the better, too!

Trailer—One Way Street

One Way Street_720p(480P)

source: One Way Street

Dan Duryea and his gang have just pulled off a big haul. Doctor James Mason scoops the loot and Duryea's girlfriend, Märta Torén. The two fugitives head to Mexico City, but the plane they're in is forced down in a poor coastal village by a busted fuel pump. The canny and kindly local priest. Basil Ruysdael, talks them into staying and giving medical help to his parishioners. However, Duryea is still looking for them, for vengeance. It's a well produced story of redemption, and Ruysdael steals the show. He was born in 1878 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA as Basil Spaulding Millspaugh. From 1910 through 1918, he was a bass-baritone for the Metropolitan Opera Company, before going on Broadway and then radio. His movie debut was in THE COCOANUTS in 1929. Aside from some voice-over work in shorts, he next was seen on the screen in 1949. He died in 1960.

I quite enjoyed James Mason's performance here as the calculating "Dr. Matson". He is frequently summoned to treat the hoodlums of gangster "Wheeler" (Dan Duryea) and during one such visit espies a bag, similar to his own, that contains $200,000 in stolen loot. After a bit of macho banter with his patient, he picks up the bag and makes for the door. He has given the boss some pills and any interference will prevent him from getting the antidote! This is the moment that moll "Laura" (Märta Torén) has been waiting for and she decides to abscond with the doctor. Their escape plan doesn't quite go to plan, though - a car and a plane accident - before they find themselves in a small town where his skills and their burgeoning love start to make them wonder if their master plan is still the best one. Meantime, though very much on the back burner, the mobsters are determined to avenge themselves on both of them. It does rather run out of steam with half an hour to go, and though the ending is actually quite fitting it was all just a little bit rushed and, I felt, frustrating! Still, there's some chemistry between the two and Basil Ruysdael's priest, a sick horse and some really lightweight banditos all play to the story quite well too. You'll probably not recall it afterwards, but it's a bit different.

James Mason, Marta Toren, Dan Duryea, and William Conrad all do a wonderful job in this first-rate production of a doctor's misadventures after associating with the wrong kind of people. A few bad decisions is all it takes; that and the Production Code, which single-handedly ruined the end of this film. A doctor hatches a clever plan to rob thieves of their heist money, and takes the moll of gangster Duryea as well. As the two flee to Mexico, there is a turn of events and the good character of the doctor begins to emerge. I will not reveal the miserable ending to this potentially wonderful film, but suffice it to say that those who decided on this ending were merely cowards, and had not a trace of real humanity within them.

***SPOILERS*** Taking off to Mexico with his boss John Wheeler's, Dan Duryea, stolen $200,000.00 in cash as well as his girl Laura, Marta Toren, Frank "Doc" Manson, James Mason, is stopped in his tracks by one of Wheeler's hoods Arnie, Jack Elam, who snuck into his getaway car looking to rip him off. With "Doc" stepping hard on the breaks Arnie after falling backwards and getting pistol whipped by "Doc" ends up dead with a broken neck. This also changes "Doc's" plans as he and Laura get a used car to continue their flight to safety in Mexico with Wheeler in not knowing the car license number having no way to find him. Wheeler mad as hell and vowing revenge sends his top goon Ollie, William Conrad, to find both "Doc" and his unfaithful, in dropping him for "Doc", girlfriend Laura and give them the business:a bullet in the back of the head! It's in the wilds of Mexico that "Doc" in seeing the abject poverty there decides to help both the people as well as animals living, as well as dying, there with his expertise in medicine. It's not long when "Doc" while preforming a delicate operation is confronted by a gang of Mexican bandits who noticed his rollex watch, worth some $10,000.00, and want to lift it off him. Convincing the head bandit to get operated on because he's been infected with deadly gangrene gives "Doc" enough time for him and Laura to be rescued by the local police who end up blowing him away. ****SPOLIERS**** Despite "Doc" & Laura being safe from Wheeler's goons in Mexico he together with her decides to go back to the states and give him back his $200,000.00 as a show of good will. This soon backfires when Ollie who's just had enough from Wheeler blasts him and decides to take all the stolen cash for himself when "Doc" shows up with it. Ridicules but at the same time unexpected ending with "Doc" now free from danger with both Wheeler and Ollie now history becomes history himself by , while crossing at night in a blinding rainstorm, looking the wrong way on a one way street!

I'll be brief, as several other reviewers here have pointed out some of the flaws with this movie. James Mason is miscast as the criminal gang doctor who finds redemtion in a Mexican village; he doesn't satisfyingly convey the doctor's reformation as a helpful healer. The last act of the movie is illogical, and the very ending a casualty of the Production Code. Why did they cast all of the Mexican roles with Latinos and cast the fairly large role of the priest to an Anglo actor, who unlike the others, speaks with no Mexican accent, and is obvously dubbed when he speaks some brief lines in Spanish? Why are several of the Mexican peasants, living in a very small rural town, fluent in English ? Why is Jack Elam not credited for his brief but important role? Too disagree with one or another of the other reviews here, Rock Hudson's role lasts maybe ten seconds and consists of one line of dialog, totally unnotable if he were not to become Rock Hudson movie star. The cirematography is just fine, and the sound is in perfect sync, in the version I watched for free on Youtube in Oct. 2023. Dan Durea has a surprisingly small supporting role, and is less nasty, and less impressive than in many of his other films. Lastly, Mara Toren is compelling and very beautiful in the Ingrid Bergman manner, but it's hard to believe her passion for James Mason, who is his usual emotionally strong but cold self in a role that calls for an actor who can portray some warmth and loving feelings.

I kept asking myself what and why James Mason playing a doctor was doing with a bunch of hoodlums instead of working in a mainstream State hospital or working in private practice.This point was never satisfactorily explained.He was far too sophisticated for this role and producers normally cast actors who play struck off doctors usually with an alcohol problem.As my summary suggests why did he at the end return for a face to face meeting with the hoodlums with the $200.000 intact? It was a neat trick to hide the revolver in the briefcase below the stolen money but what made him think he would have the time to reach for it, weren't the hoodlums going to kill him on sight in accordance with their oath?The female lead was attractive and thrived on sight in the Mexican setting.The Mexican bandidos were stereotypical/almost cartoonish Hollywood from the 1940s.I always like seeing Dan Duryea playing the "baddy" in films, he certainly got a lot of practice.William Conrad in his earlier roles played gangsters e.g, "The Killers" (1946) with Burt Lancaster but in later years played "Cannon" a private investigator.I was disappointed by the demise of James Mason's character at the end but as usual the 1950s Hollywood morality code would not allow criminals to profit from their crimes and I awarded it 6/10