East Of The River

Mama Lorenzo's boys grew up tough on the bustling New York streets. Nick (William Lundigan) set his course for a decent life and got a summa cum laude degree. Joe (john Garfield), mixed up in crime, got three years in a penitentiary. Now Joe has come back to mama and the old neighborhood. He has his check-kiting girlfriend Laurie (Brenda Marshall) with him and some scores to settle - and he never imagines his girl will soon be drawn to the decent life and to Nick. The gangster genre and social-conscience filmmaking, both specialties of the Warner studio, combine in this fast-moving film that's been likened to MGM's Manhattan Melodrama. Garfield, whose own roots somewhat mirrored the film's early scenes of kids growing up in the tenements, is a coiled fury as Joe. "You ain't his kind of people. You're my kind," he tells Laurie. She knows she can change her world. Joe may be hopelessly mired in his.

• drama