Edge of Doom

A scene in which a priest is murdered with a crucifix might appear loaded with anti-Catholic symbolism, but Mark Robson’s Edge of Doom is actually a somber tale of hopelessness and degradation that leads back to the redemptive powers of the Church. Farley Granger plays Martin Lynn, an angry, guilty young man whose penniless mother passes away, leaving him with the singular mission of giving her (“the only kind face in the world” he’d known) the fancy funeral she deserves; for Martin, the funeral would represent human decency, which appears to be in short supply, and is the only possible salve for his pain. When he confronts his mother’s parish priest to help with arrangements, the cleric responds with cold rejection, which drives Martin to kill and flee. As police begin to close in on the wrong suspect, Martin is counseled by his girlfriend Rita Conroy (Joan Evans) and the kind Father Thomas Roth (Dana Andrews), the only two people who seem to care he exists. The film is dark but not entirely cynical. Martin and his mother live in a dirty, dilapidated tenement building, and the city streets gleam and bustle with anonymity at night, so while his desperado persona verges on spoiled brat at times, we can manage to forgive him.