When I worked a graveyard shift, my supervisor, brightening (and waking) us up, asked "Quick! What are your top 5 favorite movies?" I instantly put "One Way Passage" on my list. I wasn't surprised when it wasn't on anyone else's list, this is an obscure gem. <br /><br />The balance of melodrama and comedy is perfect; as it is in many thirties Warner Bros. dramas. It seems strange at first, but think it through. (For example, my ux Tom posits that Warners's unusual lug-n-mug filled western, "The Oklahoma Kid" is probably accurate, as most of the folks in the historical wild, woolly west moved from the wild East and could have talked like Cagney.) <br /><br />The McHugh and MacMahon sub-plots are are not just comic relief from the romance, they are deftly integrated into it, and they become romantic co-conspirators. This adds to the appeal; the descriptions "chick flick," "weeper," "women's picture" can not apply. <br /><br />The leads are sexy, gorgeous, and lovable. The crossed cigarettes tossed on the beach shows how the restraints on old movies resulted in delicious images. The crossed, broken cocktail glass image, at first seen quite early on in the movie, makes me question why IMDb Comments posters are saying this is movie has an unhappy ending (that's not a spoiler, is it?)