Lang's first American film is a blistering study of lynch law and
revenge, with Tracy stunning as the innocent who survives the assault
of a lynch mob and then goes into hiding to watch as his supposed
murderers are brought to trial. MGM tacked on a sentimental happy
ending, but the rest is dynamite, and it's hard to imagine how so
forceful a vision of the fallibility of justice survived the censors.
Lang was a refugee, but he subjected American institutions to as
pitiless a critique as he had levelled at Weimar Germany; the result, a
brilliant expressionist melodrama, was never so relevant, never so
disturbing.
