Jandy Hardesty’s review published on Letterboxd:
I somehow thought this was a straight-up film noir, but really, it's more of a social drama. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's actually kind of hard to watch, with Richard Widmark playing a hardline racist who accuses a black doctor (Sidney Poitier, looking very young in his first film) of killing his brother - they're both in the hospital with gunshot wounds after trying to rob a store. The thing blows up into a full-on race war, as Widmark's family and gangster friends take out their anger on the black community.
I'm glad I saw it on TCM with some commentary from Robert Osborne - apparently the film was extremely incisive at the time (unsurprising), with five states only agreeing to show it with heavy cuts for fear of inciting real-life race riots, and it was held for months before any attempt was made to release it in the South. He didn't say what the response was like when they did release it down South, but I'm curious.