Cry Vengeance

Mark Stevens stars in his own directorial debut, Cry Vengeance, playing Vic Barron, a tragic, Job-like figure recently released from prison who ventures north to Alaska to hunt down the gangsters who murdered his family, disfigured his face, and framed him for a crime he didn’t commit. Vic is understandably bitter, and Stevens plays it just right: clearly combustible at any moment, but managing his rage through as little human contact as possible. The setting in coastal Ketchikan, Alaska (“Salmon Capital of the World”), poetically combines the alcohol-alleviated claustrophobia of a barely accessible town with the endless vastness of Alaska in all directions. The helpful owner of a local tavern, Peg Harding (Martha Hyer), takes a liking to Vic, but his shell of a heart is chillier than the Alaskan glaciers. Amidst all the gloom and violence is a little girl named Marie, the daughter of gangster Tino Morelli (Douglas Kennedy), who, in a touching scene, rekindles Vic’s paternal feelings so that he abandons his plan to kidnap her.