From the jump, Nicholas Ray and Humphrey Bogart are perfectly in sync, the director knowing just how to get the best from his star and exactly how to frame it for maximum impact.
For this alone, I’d like to reframe the idea of Knock on Any Door being a minor work for Ray, but rather, the perfect warm-up for the duo to make a masterpiece the following year with In a Lonely Place.
We also see Ray doing sexier, angstier…