One Way Street


is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Hugo Fregonese and starring James Mason, Märta Torén and Dan Duryea. The film takes place mainly in Mexico.

Plot

Physician Frank Matson steals $200,000 from mob boss John Wheeler, who has just completed his own heist along with his gang. Matson flees, intending to go to Mexico City, with Wheeler's girlfriend Laura Thorsen accompanying him. However, mechanical problems with the airplane force a landing in rural Mexico, where Matson and Laura establish a pleasant life and he provides medical treatment for the villagers.
Matson learns that Wheeler knows his location, so he and Laura return to Los Angeles, planning to return the money, only to find that Wheeler has been shot by Ollie, the one remaining member of Wheeler's gang. Matson shoots and kills Ollie.
Later, as Matson prepares to phone an airline to arrange his and Laura's return to Mexico, he is struck by a car traveling down the one-way street.

Cast

Production

Jeff Chandler was originally announced for the lead role.

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "What it all adds up to is a standard romantic melodrama illustrating the facts that crime obviously doesn't pay and that the scenery and people below the border are colorful... Like its title, 'One Way Street' is explicitly obvious and not especially exciting."