- Mark Robson's Edge of Doom is an odd film noir arranged around a distraught and desperate young man named Martin Lynn (Farley Granger). After Martin's mother dies, he angrily confronts and kills the inconsiderate priest (Harold Vermilyea) who once refused to bury Martin's late father when he killed himself some years before. The police (Robert Keith, John Ridgely, Douglas Fowley) soon pick Martin up, although it isn't clear whether they want him for the murder or for a simultaneous robbery at a nearby movie theater. Martin's girlfriend Julie (Mala Powers) tries to help, but it is only through the intervention of the noble Fr. Roth (Dana Andrews) that Martin finally finds...well, prison, if not salvation.
- The film's best moments arrive via Martin's so-called friends, the florist Mr. Swanson (Houseley Stevenson), the mortician Mr. Murray (Howland Chamberlain), and the neighbor Mr. Craig (Paul Stewart). All three men consist entirely of ulterior motives, and Craig's early anti-pep talk to Martin surely helped drive him to murder. While these men are memorably characterized, unfortunately the film sidelines Julie and the other promising female characters (Joan Evans, Adele Jergens), preferring instead to show repeated scenes of Martin loudly discussing flower arrangements or wandering crowded streets packed with unfriendly faces. Its real sin, though, may be that it more or less lets the Catholic Church off the hook for its absurd policy of rejecting suicide victims. Granger, Powers, Stewart, and Andrews are all good, and Andrews even manages to get in a fistfight and solve a murder without removing the Roman collar.
