Edge of the City

Ritt's first feature, scripted by Robert Alan Aurthur from his own teleplay A Man is Ten Feet Tall. Cassavetes and Poitier become friends down on the waterfront. Cassavetes is the mixed-up, insecure white boy picked on by the brutal, bigoted foreman/union racketeer (Warden); Poitier the wiser, maturer black who defends him (at the cost of his life) in an attempt to teach him to stand up for the right thing. A worthy enough piece, well acted and making excellent use of locations on the New York docks; but when you get down to it, no less dramatically artificial than On the Town, and this boy Poitier is whiter than white.