Recencies van critici

Gargan could act, and Endfield capitalises on this ability to be convincing but not appealing by making his hero decidedly unheroic. He may be smarter than the cops, but Gargan's hack is selfishly motivated, exploiting everyone he meets and getting his timid photographer knifed. It's Endfield's leftist side, I think, painting a noir portrait of what capitalist greed does to people: Gargan is the most unpleasant character to take a lead role in a noir outside of Ralph Meeker in Kiss Me Deadly.

If Inflation is unusually packed and fast-moving, the 63-minute Argyle Secrets is even more so... The sheer darkness of the night scenes only intensifies our occasional perplexity, though it must be added that Endfield and his cinematographer, Mack Stengler, create many remarkable and arresting noir compositions from this interminable stretch of night, usually with what appear to be minimal light sources.