"What do you care, it wasn't your kid." Hard nosed and hot headed cop Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) is sent up state to investigate a murder (and to let things cool down), after slapping around one suspect too many. He's sent to Westham Junction to uncover who murdered a young girl. With the girls father (Ward Bond) he tracks the suspect to the isolated house of Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman who lives with her mentally deficient brother Danny (Sumner Williams), whom she is trying to protect. Forced to stay the night at Mary's house things start to get complicated and Jim starts to question his brutal methods.
An interesting film about redemption, as the cop comes up against an even more heavy handed and brutal man than he is and begins to see the error of his ways. His deliverance is facilitated by the warmth of Lupino's blind woman, who must accept the help and trust of everyone, as opposed to his single minded and untrusting loneliness.
Googled the fictional location "Westham Junction" to see if Detective Wilson was being sent to a real place and ran across this blog. What a treasure it is!
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