The director's somber personality has been revealed consistently through a complex visual style. -- Andrew Sarris on Joseph H. Lewis
Lewis's complex visual style is beautifully on display in Cry of the Hunter, with the help of the chiaroscuro black-and-white cinematography of veteran Harold Lipstein filmed on location in a swamp (where Lewis's great Gun Crazy also ended), where Lt. Tunner is chasing down escaped convict Jory (Vittorio Gassman). Tunner is a fish out of water as he chases Jory from asphalt of Los Angeles to the swamp water of Louisiana. Tunner and Jory represent two side of what a man can be, as they both have dedicated wives who support them in their dangerous careers, one criminal and one law-enforcement, and at one point Tunner is so thirsty he drinks swamp water, passes out, and dreams of a weird relationship with Jory. Tunner is helped in his search for Jory by the intense Goodwin (William Conrad) and the local sheriff (Harry Shannon), who are both ready to shoot-to-kill.
Tunner, after meeting Jory's passionate wife Ella (Mary Zavian), develops a sympathy for Jory and they end up helping each other out as they seek a way out of the swamp: Jory rescues Tunner from quicksand and Tunner helps Jory recover from an injury as Tunner's cynicism falters; eventually he mentors Jory during Jory's last year in prison. There's too much redemption and too little fatalism to call this a film noir -- as were the earlier Gun Crazy in 1950 and Lewis's later The Big Combo (1955) -- but it is an impressive meditation on the influence of background and environment.
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