One Way Street


One Way Street is a 1950 American film noir crime film directed by Hugo Fregonese and starring James Mason, Märta Torén and Dan Duryea. The crime film takes place mainly in Mexico.

Plot

Dr. Frank Matson, a physician, steals $200,000 from mob boss John Wheeler henchmen after a robbery Wheeler and henchman Ollie have pulled off. Forced to go on the run, Matson also takes Wheeler's girlfriend Laura Thorsen with him.
After hiding out in Mexico, word gets back to Matson that Wheeler knows where he is. He and Laura return to Los Angeles planning to return the money, only to find Wheeler has been shot by Ollie. About to meet the same fate, Matson produces a gun and kills Ollie instead.
Laura is waiting for him at a cafe. As they leave, Matson turns to go phone the airline to get away with Laura, but is hit by a car coming down the one-way street.

Cast

Jeff Chandler was originally announced for the lead.

Reception

Film critic Bosley Crowther dismissed the film as uninteresting, "Perhaps it is all the fault of the script, which has our hero vacillating between a life of crime and regeneration via a lady's love and an honest but unremunerative practice. What it all adds up to is a standard romantic melodrama illustrating the facts that crime obviously doesn't pay and that the scenery and people below the border are colorful... Like its title, One Way Street is explicitly obvious and not especially exciting."