Review: Underworld USA


It doesn’t surprise me that Martin Scorsese is a fan of cult filmmaker Sam Fuller (“The Big Red One”, “The Deadly Trackers”), with this surprisingly mature 1961 crime-drama starting off a little like the early scenes in “Goodfellas”. Played as an adult by Cliff Robertson (interestingly nonchalant about his actions, but perhaps a little too All-American looking for the role), Tolly is a former street hoodlum who catches a glimpse of his father’s murderers, resorts to petty crime and is thrown in jail, where he passes the time thinking of revenge. Robert Emhardt, an undervalued character actor wonderfully portrays the Sydney Greenstreet-ish crime boss (who was not, in fact, one of the men who killed Robertson’s father) who is outwardly respectable, stealing the film. Richard Rust is positively chilling as one of Emhardt’s chief enforcers (and one of the murderers), and Beatrice Kay is top-notch as the moll/girlfriend of Robertson’s father, who looks out for him as much as she can. Dolores Dorn plays ‘Cuddles’ the gangster’s moll whom Robertson might be falling for. Larry Gates plays the federal agent Robertson is also manipulating, in scenes all-too reminiscent of crime melodramas of the time (one of the few debits of an otherwise very different crime flick for the time, refreshing, in fact).

 

Superb black and white cinematography by Hal Mohr (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Phantom of the Opera”, “The Walking Dead”), with the initial murder-through-silhouette a particular standout. This is B-grade noir, but a pretty good one at that. Screenplay by the director, this one’s worth seeking out, especially for noir fans or Sam Fuller completists.

 

Rating: B-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chil...
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit t...
Read more

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
Read more