This film was told by veteran priest Dana Andrews to a young troubled priest. The tale was about a real-life murder and how Andrews came to become involved in counseling this young killer. The intent of the story was to make you feel sorry for Farley Granger and understand his motivation--something I just KNEW would be a major thrust in the film since Farley made a habit of playing young "good" men who somehow go bad (as in ROPE and THEY LIVE BY NIGHT). The problem with this whole angle, though, is that apart from Granger's poverty, I didn't feel the least bit sorry for him or understand the pointless murder. Granger's character was very whiny and weak and frankly he disgusted me with his petulant manner throughout the film. Now Andrews was excellent as a priest--forgiving, kind and yet tough when he had to be and I could understand why, as a priest, he worked so hard to save Granger's soul--even if Granger was a childish idiot. In fact, aside from Granger's character, the film was very good but the general unlikability of him really did a lot to deaden the impact of the film. A nice try to make a film with a social conscience, but it just didn't fly and is just a time-passer.

Farley Granger is a young man on the "Edge of Doom," in this 1950 film also starring Dana Andrews, Mala Powers and Paul Stewart. When a young priest wants to change parishes, Father Roth (Dana Andrews) tells the story of Martin Lynn (Granger),saying that what happened with Martin showed him that, as a priest, he was in the right place. Martin Lynn is a young man who is having trouble making ends meet as a delivery man for a florist; he has a chronically ill mother, and he wants to be able to move her to Arizona. However, after working with the florist for four years, he still can't get a raise. When his mother dies, he wants a high-priced funeral for her. He goes to the church rectory, as his mother was deeply religious and, despite living in near poverty, always gave what she could to the parish church. In an ensuing argument with an old, tired and tough priest (Harold Vermilyea),Martin hits him over the head, and the priest dies. Later, he's picked up, not for the murder, but for the robbery of a movie theater actually done by his neighbor (Paul Stewart). Though released, the detective in charge (Robert Keith) is still suspicious of him.

"Edge of Doom" is a grim noir that never lets up; Martin Lynn can't get a break, not from his boss, the funeral director or the church. His girlfriend (Mala Powers) at first feels there is no place for her in his life because of his mother. After the mother dies and Paul commits murder, he breaks up with her. His only support is Father Roth, whom he doesn't like - he resents the church for not burying his father on hallowed ground when he committed suicide and for taking his mother's money. It's not often in a film that one sees a priest killed - and with a cross yet.

The acting is good if not great. Farley Granger is sympathetic as Martin. He was often cast in this type of role. Dana Andrews does an okay job as the priest, but is a little too precious. The way to play a priest is the way Spencer Tracy did - as a man first. Andrews tries to put on a priestly air but it seems forced.

Apparently this film was not well received upon release and was withdrawn to add the very beginning, where Andrews begins to tell the story, and the very end, which comes back to the present time with Andrews and the priest. It doesn't really help the film's relentless, depressing tone. Don't watch this one if you need a smile or a feel-good movie.

One of the reasons that I liked Edge Of Doom is the fact that Catholic priests are portrayed as human. In that the contrast in the behavior of Dana Andrews and Harold Vermilyea is the key to the film, not withstanding the performance of Farley Granger as the protagonist, a sensitive troubled youth driven to rage and murder.

Harold Vermilyea is a thirty year veteran of the skid row parish he's been assigned to. Faces have changed, but conditions haven't and he's seeing that his religious message hasn't brought much change. He's suffering from the very human condition of burnout.

So when Farley Granger who has a history with the church consisting of his father not being given a Catholic funeral because he was a suicide comes to Vermilyea asking for a big celebratory funeral for his mother who was a believer who never lost faith and being told no, the rage takes over him. He clubs Vermilyea with a heavy crucifix and kills him.

Vermilyea is having a family crisis of his own, his niece has run off with a divorced man and is having a civil ceremony because the church won't marry them. He was also bound by Catholic rules not to give Granger's father a Catholic rite because of those selfsame rules. All that Granger doesn't know and when we seek guidance from clergy in any faith we never know what's in their background that could affect their actions with us.

Anyway Granger spends the rest of the film with a troubled conscience which Dana Andrews suspects, but can't really prove. Since he hasn't come to him in confession there's no vow of silence unlike O.E. Hasse who tormented Montgomery Clift with that in I Confess. So Andrews is free to help the police investigation which is headed by Robert Keith.

But Andrews is a priest in the best G.K. Chesterton tradition, as much concerned with Granger's soul as with solving the case. That's his dilemma. You can also see that he looks at Vermilyea and thinks that this could be him in another twenty years.

Edge Of Doom is one of the bleakest noir films ever made. It offers no solutions to any problems. People seemed bound by fate and trapped by the dogma they believe. Some similar themes in a secular vein were also expressed in the Humphrey Bogart film Knock On Any Door which came out a year earlier with Bogart as an attorney and John Derek a young client who has a lot of history and baggage.

It's a fine film, but prepare yourself for a real downer.