It's the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and everyone wants out. Anthony Ross and Glenda Farrell have been trying to raise their children, and hope his new job will let them move to idyllic Astoria. Their daughter, Patricia Hardy, has just won a local beauty contest, and gotten some new clothes. She and her boyfriend don't see any clear route. Harvey Lembeck robs a blind man's hoard.... and he turns up dead.
Director Jack Arnold is best remembered for directing Universal sci-fi films in the late 1950s, still remarkable for their symbolic subtext. In this film, about growing up in an ugly, trash-filled neighborhood, fearful lest you become trash yourself, there's no need for subtext. It's all there on the surface.
Director Jack Arnold is best remembered for directing Universal sci-fi films in the late 1950s, still remarkable for their symbolic subtext. In this film, about growing up in an ugly, trash-filled neighborhood, fearful lest you become trash yourself, there's no need for subtext. It's all there on the surface.