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Crime in the Streets (1956)
Topic Started: Oct 12 2012, 10:28 AM (773 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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And now, if you've been following my prattle on this here swell message board, you read (maybe) that when I don't have a particular film in mind to watch, I look and see what Balcony area hasn't been updated in the longest time and select a film to fill that particular hole. See how my mind (maybe) works?

So that brings us to Monogram. Now, when I think of Monogram Pictures, I think of cheap little black and white movies from 1942, with low-grade actors on two interior sets engrossed in a mystery of some sort, a mystery sorted out exactly 67 minutes later. By the 1950s, though, they'd upgraded to Allied Artists and - Bowery Boys movies aside - had upgraded some of their output. A bit. AA was no MGM, don't get me wrong. Still Monogram, though, and still covered here in this grimiest, stickiest section of the Balcony.

Which brings us to Crime in the Streets, which can be found in Warner Bros.' "Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 5". It's much more a juvenile delinquency film than a noir, but whatever. It's a good movie, highly entertaining, and surprisingly close in look and feel to the classic Dead End. I wish Bernard Punsly were in it.

John Cassavetes, in his film debut, is the leader of a gang of street punks (in matching car coats) whose turf seems to consist of one street corner; his right-hand men are Sal Mineo (as the baby-faced "Baby") and future director Mark Rydell (The Rose, On Golden Pond). When an old man on the street squeals to the cops about a gang fight, Cassavetes hatches a plot to "stick" the guy with a "blade" (that JD lingo, follow it best you can). Nice guy social worker James Whitmore senses the scent of death in the air (well, that and urine, judging by the looks of the street they're on) and sticks his nose in; Cassavetes has brutal arguments with is mom (who cries to him, "I'm your MOTHER! The word feels DIRTY in my mouth!") and hero-worshiping but terrified little brother. Amidst all this drama, well, who will live? Who will die? Who will sing along with the film's jazzy score? (One of the characters actually does sing along, a surreal but nice touch.)

Don Siegel directs, and as I watched this thing (a gorgeous DVD print & transfer) I couldn't help but think that, despite its gloss and cast, the whole thing reminded me of a live TV show of the 1950s, with mainly a couple of sets, a lot of dialog, a lot of melodrama, a lot of closeups of two heads talking, and very much an "adult" approach: the story is clearly aimed at the parents, not the kids. Well, when it was over, I did my usual spotty, slipshod job of research and discovered that, indeed, it was an episode of The Elgin Hour written by Reginald Rose and remade for the big screen, apparently with very few changes, in a rush, much of the cast intact, and the only "opening up" sequence the gang fight during the opening credits. (The TV show's credits, in addition to Cassavetes, included a couple of interesting names replaced for the film: Glenda Farrell was the mom, Robert Preston the social worker, and - hey! - Van Dyke Parks, the guy who wrote the lyrics to Brian Wilson's Smile project - as the kid brother.) Virginia Gregg is the mom in the film version, and she's very good. James Whitmore is good, too, although he sure was a funny looking man, with that nappy hair of his and uni-eyebrow. He looks like a rudimentary, unsuccessful design for a Muppet.

Cassavetes is excellent as the psycho-prone gang leader, but in a lot of ways, this is Mineo's film - he and his Italian immigrant father have some powerful, powerful scenes together. Mineo is quite reluctant about killing the old man, see, and demonstrates his anguish quite well. This was right after Rebel without a Cause, and maybe it's typecasting, but Mineo is terrific here.

A highly entertaining film, with a catchy jazz score (no rock 'n' roll here, bub). I liked it a lot.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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I saw this recently and wasn't too impressed, but I loved it when it came out.
Edited by panzer the great & terrible, Oct 12 2012, 12:36 PM.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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panzer the great & terrible
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Mouth Breather
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Mineo's story is sad. After showing unlimited promise in several major films he got sidetracked into unimportant roles and eventually just did TV until he was killed by a violent stranger.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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rodney
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I don't think Gravy oversells this one. The story is pretty routine, but it's so well done that I was pretty swept up in it the entire time. I guess they could've trimmed about 10 minutes off of it, but knowing that Allied Artists was going for an "A" picture, it's forgivable.
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