Crime Wave (1954): B+

His plans for a straight-and-narrow life undone by three escaped convicts (including Charles Bronson, né Charles Buchinsky) who appear on his doorstep in need of a hideout, ex-con Steve Lacy (Gene Nelson) finds himself at the center of a tug-of-war between his former criminal compadres and Sterling Hayden’s determined detective in André De Toth’s neorealist noir gem Crime Wave (aka The City is Dark). The film’s highlight arrives early, during a scintillating tableau of police station plaintiffs and potential crooks that hints at the titular illicit flood, though de Toth’s no-nonsense direction also gives the subsequent action – in which Lacey is roped into his pals’ plans for a bank heist and airplane getaway to Mexico – a hard-boiled poeticism. Regardless of its mildly cynical edge, the upbeat ending doesn’t completely agree with the film’s preceding pessimistic outlook on the viability of positive transformation (Lacey seemingly doomed by his desire to change his stripes). Such a false final note, however, isn’t enough to sully Hayden’s vigorous turn as a no-nonsense cop, nor De Toth’s heart-pounding portrait of moral confliction.