ICE-Vision: Crime Wave (Andre de Toth, 1954)
Thursday, September 15 at 8 PM
Lamar Dodd School of Art Room S150
Film Studies major Will Stephenson continues ICE’s informal weekly series, selecting a variety of world cinema classics and subcultural curiosities.
“A relentlessly unforced potboiler that gazes at noir through the looking glass . . . Though little-seen, Andre de Toth’s Crime Wave has long been considered a masterpiece of the genre. De Toth was a one-eyed, poet-brute with a remarkable flair for chiaroscuro that betrayed the fact that he had almost no depth perception. Shot in two weeks, in and around Skid Row, this menacing potboiler’s hard-bitten night stands in striking contrast to its antiseptic day, and though it is notable for its brutal narrative efficiency and Sterling Hayden’s stylized rage, it is most interesting for its harrowing look at crime trapping virtue in a sweaty headlock.” -Slant Magazine