The Lawless (1950)

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The Lawless is a 1950 American film noir directed by Joseph Losey and starring Macdonald Carey, Gail Russell, Johnny Sands, Lee Patrick, John Hoyt, and Lalo Ríos in his film debut. The plot concerns a crusading newspaper editor in California who becomes concerned about the plight of fruit pickers, mostly immigrants from Mexico. It is adapted by Daniel Mainwaring from his short story "The Voice of Stephen Wilder".

Production

The film was based on the short story The Voice of Stephen Wilder by Daniel Mainwaring. Film rights were purchased by Pine-Thomas Productions in August 1949. Mainwaring was a friend of Pine Thomas and he persuaded the producers to hire Losey. Losey later said:

It was a subject I felt very passionately about but I had big trouble because Pine and Thomas were a combination that made ‘B’ pictures for Paramount, and they were monsters, absolute monsters. And they interfered in the worst possible way at all points and I would never have been able to make that picture in a million years if I hadn’t had the guts and if Dan Mainwaring hadn’t had the guts that he had. He really risked his career to protect me.

Losey studied the 1936 Fury as well as footage from the 1949 Peekskill riots.

The film was known at one stage as Outrage. Gail Russell had been on suspension by Paramount but was freed to make the film.

The film was an attempt by Pine-Thomas Productions to make a more "significant" kind of film. Shooting began in October and took 18 days.

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