The Capture (film)


The Capture is a 1950 drama film directed by John Sturges, starring Lew Ayres, Teresa Wright, Victor Jory and Jacqueline White. Some film historians have categorized it as a noir.
The story, told in flashback deals with an ex-oil worker driven by guilt at causing the death of an innocent man to find out the truth about a robbery.

Plot

Lin Vanner, is manager of an oil company. The payroll has been stolen in a hold-up. His fiance urges him to pursue the suspect in hope that he will gain recognition. Deducing the road the robber may have taken over the border with Mexico, he goes along to intercept him. He shoots a man who shouts back at him and does not raise his hands when challenged by Lin.
Too late Lin learns that the man could not raise one arm because it was injured and this was the reason for his shouting rather than complying with the demand he raise his hands; he was not guilty of the robbery. Troubled at his action and abandoned by his fiance, Lin takes it on himself to tell the dead man's wife, Ellen - but on arrival he is mistaken for an applicant for a helper to keep the dead man's farm going until his widow's son is old enough to take over.
Lin believes that this opportunity has been given to him to make amends for his mistake and he gives up his position to labor as a man-of-all-work on the farm.
With Father Gomez by his side, the story that he is being pursued by the police for another killing is told in a flashback.

Cast

Critical response

When the film was released, the staff at Variety gave the film a generally favorable review, writing. They wrote, "The Capture is an offbeat drama, with psychological overtones, that plays off against the raw and rugged background of Mexican locales. Picture kicks off with a wallop... Ayres and Teresa Wright are very capable in the lead characters, adding to the general realism given the story because of the locales used. One of the interesting touches to the film is the incidental native music hauntingly spotted with the appearance of a blind guitar player."