John Alton, the Hungarian-born cinematographer (author of “Painting With Light”), is coming to be regarded as one of the greatest cameramen in film history. Certainly his work in film noir is without parallel. As writer/director Paul Schrader notes: “the greatest master of noir was Hungarian-born John Alton, an expressionist cinematographer who could relight Times Square at noon if necessary. No cinematographer better adapted the old expressionistic techniques to the new desire for realism, and his black and white photography in such gritty film noir as T-Men, Raw Deal, I The Jury and The Big Combo equals that of such German expressionist masters as Fritz Wagner and Karl Freund.”

“A convict escapes from jail with the help of a woman accomplice. He kidnaps another woman, a social worker, for protection from the police - and falls in love with her. When he finally breaks through the police dragnet in the end, he finds himself the object of a murderous double-cross! Here betrayal and fatalism hold hands.”