Brazil’s contribution to the film noir cycle was relatively inconsequential, the main exception being director Roberto Farias, whose well-known Assault on the Pay Train (1962) tends to overshadow his debut feature, Cidade Ameaçada (US: City Under Threat), the tale of an escaped prisoner who finds refuge in the home (and arms) of a kindhearted, pretty girl. Based on a real-life gangster, the fugitive Passarinho (Reginaldo Faria) reunites with his old gang and immediately falls back into the criminal life which leads him to Terezinha (Eva Wilma), who helps him escape from the police — and tends to his wounds — after the first robbery goes off the rails. Despite a romance detour in the middle, the film deftly portrays the chaos of Rio through leaping (sometimes literally) cinematography and bursts of action, often in the form of machine gun ambushes; a scene involving an attack on a salacious dance party at an underground haunt effectively depicts the rawness of life on the edge (compare with juvenile delinquency films produced at this time, especially in Japan). Weaving in commentary on the evil forces of media sensationalism, Farias creates thick noir atmosphere through dense fog, thunderstorms, flashlights in chase, low angles, and the kind of low-key lighting that makes faces glow in dark interiors.