No Way Out (1950)

A black doctor works on two brothers who were injured after an attempted robbery of a gas station, and one of them dies shortly after receiving an injection applied by him. The surviving brother blames the doctor for it.

Interesting, yet endlessly talky, drama. It exemplifies an argument constantly raised by opponents of multiracial societies, that they corrode interpersonal trust. Whether this is a plausible argument or not is another matter, that I will not address here. As for the film, it is quite watchable, despite its already mentioned verbosity. Behind the obvious patient-mistrusts-doctor thematic axis, there is a parallel one, older doctor-mistrusts-younger doctor, which requires a little analysis to disclose, and which I have picked up from reading Christopher Mulrooney's observations. I will quote him in extenso, since it is short:
*quote* The theme is a variant continuing House of Strangers. The young Negro physician is almost a resident, he faces gross opposition.
This is the middle term, the summation is All About Eve.
Latter-day critics describe it as a film noir and disparage its deficiencies in that regard. *unquote*
I couldn't make any connnection to House of Strangers, because I barely remember it. As for All About Eve, after reading Mulrooney's notes I did see a connection, although I am not sure whether it has anything to do with what he talks about. All About Eve is about a renowned actress and an aspiring actress, No Way Out is about a renowned physician and an aspiring physician. In the former film, the younger is a threat to the older, and ends up usurping her place, so to speak. It is not inconceivable that a threat of this kind could be in place between the two doctors of No Way Out. In All About Eve, the older actress is unsuspecting, if I recall correctly (it's been a while since I've seen it). In No Way Out, the explicit occurrences signal a similar lack of suspicion. However, if you are into digging into the subterranean minds of movies (like I did in my previous blog entry), you might smell something funny. For instance, what if the hateful patient is just a projection of some part of the older doctor's mind? In Freudian jargon, he would be his Id. After all, it is conceivable that the older doctor is an ordinary human being who has fears and feels threatened (instead of the saint he outwardly appears to be). His fears might, for all we know, concern the younger doctor's excessive competence.

Rating: 51