Search the Community

This is definitely a classic, but I just can't remember anything other than the final scene. I'm sure I watched it on Turner Classic Movies, perhaps a couple of years ago. It's b&w, likely from the 40's or early 50's, and the ending takes place around dusk in a very flat, low tide marshy area with lots of wooden planks placed over the deep mud. The rest is a bit sketchy, so some of the details may be a little off. The main character (a dark-haired fellow) goes to the muddy marsh to meet some other shady characters (maybe to pick up some money), but he gets killed instead. I think he was stabbed...not sure though...could have been shot. I clearly remember him slowly dropping, his body laying half on a plank and half in the mud. His wife (or girlfriend) was with him or followed him and witnesses the murder. That's where the film ends. Really stark and haunting. Another note about the main character...he was one of those guys who was either bad at the beginning but turned good as the story unfolded, or vice versa (good guy who goes slightly bad). He may have been trying to play both ends against the middle, as the saying goes. Either way, whether he deserved it or not, his death at the end was rather sad.