Cry of the Hunted is a 1953 American crime film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis.

[2] An obsessive lawman (Barry Sullivan) who works for the state chases an escaped fugitive (Vittorio Gassman) through the Louisiana bayou.

[1] Film critic Hal Erickson, of AllMovie, has praised the directing of the film, writing, "On the whole, the MGM B product of the 1950s contained some of the studio's best-ever 'small' pictures...Cry of the Hunted is directed with flair by Joseph H. Lewis, who always managed to rise above the slimmest of budgets and the barest of production values.

Interesting subplot has Conrad waiting for Sullivan to make a wrong move so he can grab his job.

"[4] Critics Alain Silver and Elizabeth Ward, in various sections of their analysis of the film, discuss a sub silentio theme found in the movie: the homosexual undercurrent of the protagonists; they write, "After an initial scene, in which Sullivan and Gassman wrestle each other to exhaustion and then sit sharing cigarettes like brothers," and, "...even in his sleep [Sullivan] is obsessive as he dreams of the escapee in homoerotic terms," and, "Gassman too seems drawn to his pursuer.