During WWII, industrialist Joe Keller commits a crime and frames his business partner Herbert Deever. Years later, his sin comes back to haunt him when his son plans to marry Deever's daughter.
Acting
Robinson's sweat-drenched guilt versus Lancaster's shattered idealism.
Writing
Arthur Miller's debut screenplay — every line cuts like broken glass.
Director
Irving Reis
Edward G. Robinson
Joe Keller
Burt Lancaster
Chris Keller
Mady Christians
Kate Keller
Louisa Horton
Ann Deever
Howard Duff
George Deever
Frank Conroy
Herbert Deever
Lloyd Gough
Jim Bayliss
Arlene Francis
Sue Bayliss
Harry Morgan
Frank Lubey
Elisabeth Fraser
Lydia Lubey
Herb Vigran
Wertheimer (uncredited)
Helen Brown
Pat Flaherty
Bartender (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was the only Arthur Miller screenplay he didn't adapt from his own stage direction — he wrote it specifically for the screen after the 1947 Broadway smash.
The film was shot during the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings; Lancaster and Robinson were both later blacklisted, making this pre-blacklist work feel eerily prescient about naming names and moral cowardice.
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