No Way Out (1950 film)
| No Way Out | |
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Theatrical release poster by Paul Rand
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| Directed by | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Screenplay by |
Lesser Samuels Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Starring |
Richard Widmark Linda Darnell Stephen McNally Sidney Poitier |
| Music by | Alfred Newman |
| Cinematography | Milton R. Krasner |
| Edited by | Barbara McLean |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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106 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1.3 million |
No Way Out is a 1950 black-and-white American film noir directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and starring Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally and Sidney Poitier, who portrays a doctor tending to slum residents whose ethics are tested when confronted with racism, personified by Richard Widmark as the hateful robber Ray Biddle.
No Way Out marked the feature film debuts of Sidney Poitier and actress Mildred Joanne Smith.
Dr. Luther Brooks (Sidney Poitier), an intern who has just passed the state board examination to qualify for his license to practice, is the first African-American doctor at the urban county hospital at which he trained. Because he lacks self-confidence, Luther requests to work as a junior resident at the hospital for another year. Johnny (Dick Paxton) and Ray Biddle (Richard Widmark), brothers who were both shot in the leg by a policeman as they attempted a robbery, are brought to the hospital's prison ward. As Luther tends to the disoriented Johnny, he is bombarded with racist slurs by Ray, who grew up in Beaver Canal, the white working class section of the city. Believing that Johnny has a brain tumor, Luther administers a spinal tap, but Johnny dies during the procedure. Wondering if Ray's antagonism may have caused him to be careless, Luther consults his mentor, chief medical resident Dr. Daniel Wharton (Stephen McNally), and Wharton concedes that a brain tumor was only one possibility. Feeling that he must prove the accuracy of his diagnosis, Luther requests an autopsy, but Wharton informs him that according to state law, they cannot proceed without the permission of the deceased's family. When Ray refuses, as he does not want his brother's body to be cut up, Wharton confers with the head of the hospital, Dr. Sam Moreland (Stanley Ridges), about requisitioning an autopsy.
Moreland, aware that a scandal over the black doctor's actions could endanger funding, denies the request in the hope that the incident will be forgotten. Upon learning from police records that Johnny was married, Wharton and Luther visit his widow, Edie Johnson (Linda Darnell), who tells the doctors that she divorced Johnny a year and a half ago, and that she hates his whole family. Although she does not reveal it to Wharton, his sympathetic attitude persuades her to visit Ray to ask about the autopsy. Ray tells her, however, that Johnny would be alive if he had had a white doctor, and that Wharton wants to have the autopsy to cover up the truth about Luther's actions.
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