Terrific noir nail-biter and the only crime movie to deal with the cutthroat world of produce. Yep, fruits and vegetables. This film does for apples what Double Indemnity did for insurance. Lee J. Cobb is the evil produce vendor/gangster who connives ways to cheat the farm folk and crop-pickers who roll into San Francisco to sell off their goods. Richard Conte is the US Army veteran whose father was one of Cobb’s victims. Now Richard Conte wants revenge.
Along with some terrific performances, this is also notable for being shot on-location in San Francisco’s bustling produce market, which is portrayed like the floor of the Stock Exchange at peak hours with everyone nearly climbing on top of each other like ants to buy and sell.
Directed by Jules Dassin, future victim of the Hollywood Communist blacklist (and the film does take a very dim view of capitalism, with characters who are basically good turned into lying worms while engaged in capitalist pursuit). Written by A.I. Bezzerides (who’d later write the screenplay for Kiss Me Deadly) adapting his own novel, Thieves’ Market.