Directed by Joseph Lerner • 1950 • United States
Starring Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Mary Boland

Set in a seamy milieu of cheap flophouses and skid-row social castoffs, this evocatively scuzzy B noir stars Zachary Scott, in one of his rawest and most compelling performances, as Max Thursday, a washed-up former cop who has descended into a life of alcoholic desperation. When his ex-wife (Faye Emerson) reappears with the news that their son has been kidnapped, Thursday must find a way to stay off the sauce long enough to track him down. By filming largely on location in New York City, director Joseph Lerner imbues GUILTY BYSTANDER with a sense of unnerving realism.