If you think you've seen this one before you have. I Walk Alone takes the plot premise of Warner Brothers Angels With Dirty Faces and refines it quite a bit with far more character development than James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart were allowed to do with their characters in that other film.

This was the first co-starring film of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in the salad days as Paramount contract players. Of course they would do better collaborative films in the future, but I Walk Alone was a pretty good way to start the team identification. Lancaster is an old time prohibition bootlegger who has just finished a fourteen year stretch in prison. Like Cagney he took the fall and like Cagney he wants his share of the business just like he left off.

But in the intervening years which also included the Great Depression and World War II, Kirk Douglas in the Bogart part no longer runs a cheap speakeasy. He's the proprietor of a successful Stork Club like nightclub with Lizabeth Scott singing there nightly. He's got Scott on the side, but he's also putting the moves on society mover and shaker Kristine Miller. There's no place in his set up for an old time Twenties hood like Lancaster.

Lancaster doesn't take the hint easily until he's left beaten and unconscious in an alley. After that he's framed for Wendell Corey's murder who ran the books then and now for Douglas.

The film really belongs to Kirk Douglas. He does a variation on the part he did Out Of The Past, a rather elegant and fastidious man, whom you don't have to scratch too hard or too deep to see the menace come out. Blended of course with the Bogart role in Angels With Dirty Face in which quite more depth is given. Kirk just thinks he's the smartest guy around and everyone else is dumb, that's his downfall.

I Walk Alone is a nice noir thriller from Paramount and the beginning of the partnership of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas of whom columnist Hedda Hopper labeled the Terrible Twins.

Although I WALK ALONE tells a very familiar kind of revenge storyline about an ex-con coming out of prison after a long stretch and gunning for vengeance against the former partner who betrayed him, the cast alone makes it a superior kind of production. Burt Lancester, impossibly tall and impossibly youthful, is fine as the stressed-out lead and Kirk Douglas more than matches him as the slimy, confident hero. Lizabeth Scott bags one of her usual femme fatale type roles and does well with it, while Wendell Corey is a stand-out as always. The story simmers and bubbles for a while, punctuated by bursts of violence and building to an effectively highly-strung climax.

I Walk Alone is directed by Byron Haskin and adapted to screenplay by Charles Schnee, Robert Smith and John Bright from the play written by Theodore Reeves. It stars Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott and Wendell Corey. Music is by Victor Young and cinematography by Leo Tover.

Frankie Madison (Lancaster) returns to New York after 14 years in prison. Noll Turner (Douglas),Frankie's former partner in bootlegging, is now a wealthy nightclub manager, and Frankie is expecting him to honor a verbal '50:50' agreement they made when he was caught and Noll got away...

This is perfect noir foil for the three main stars, Lancaster is all macho mismanagement and edgy, Douglas is suave, cunning and intense, while Scott smoulders and portrays her conflicted character with believable confusion and an earnest yearning for worth.

The story intrigues mainly through Frankie being a man out of his time, after serving 14 years in prison, he comes out to find the underworld he once knew has changed considerably. Yet he wants what is his and will put himself through the mangler in the old day way to get what he thinks he rightly deserves. Kay Lawrence (Scott) isn't a femme fatale, she just borders the type by default until the truth will out and the story arc folds inwards (love the way Tover lights her scenes).

Douglas revels in being a villain, and the Noll Turner character gives him the chance to smarm, charm and trample on anyone who could affect his monetary gains. And so it is left to Corey as Dave to round out the key affecting perfs. He's the man closest to Frankie, but as a milquetoast type of lawyer, he has, while Frankie was in prison, helped legally cover the financial angles for Noll Turner. All characters are entering noirville and it makes for a satisfying experience for fans of such. 7/10