Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

dougdoepke In the law and order 1950's, crooked cops were not exactly a box office item, especially from a studio that prided itself on wholesome entertainment. But head executive Louis B. Mayer had been forced out of MGM in favor of the more current Dore Schary who promised harder- hitting films on subjects more topical than Andy Hardy.I guess it's easier to shift personnel than it is to change tradition, because this crime drama has neither the look nor the feel of the real thing. In short, the movie's an antiseptic treatment of a seamy subject, and all Robert Taylor's tedious tough talk or George Raft's gangster reputation can't muddy up the sheen. Note Taylor's impeccable suits, the glamor girls in high-class outfits, the uncluttered studio sets, and especially the high-key lighting that robs the visuals of any hint of ambiguity. Unfortunately, director Roy Rowland brings next to nothing to the project, filming in the most pedestrian style possible. This is a film that cries out for at least something of a noir approach to bring out the menace and moral conflict implicit in the screenplay. Note too, how many punches are pulled from the final ambulance scene to the redeemed bad girls to the fist-fight with muscular Vince Edwards-- as a matter of fact, the movie could have used more of Edwards' convincing style. Note in particular, how the killing of the two innocents is done off camera, depriving the drama of the kind of visual impact it so clearly needs. Simply nibbling around the edges of evil with an unsmiling ex-matinée idol is not enough.Too bad a studio like RKO or Warner Bros. of the 40's didn't get hold of the property first. They could have done it up right. MGM may have been great for lavish productions like costume drama and musicals, but crime drama simply did not fit their style. And not even Dore Schary could change that.

Stormy_Autumn In "Rogue Cop" (1954) Robert Taylor did great.Dev. Sgt. Chris Kelvaney (Robert Taylor) has a younger brother Eddie (Steve Forrest) who is a street cop. Eddie can identify a murderer he saw run from the scene of the crime.Big brother Chris, who is "on the take", is contacted by gangster Dan Beaumonte (George Raft, of course) with bribery in mind. He's willing to pay Eddie $15,000 if he changes his testimony. Beaumonte's afraid the murderer (Vince Edwards) knows too much. He might sing and put them all in "Sing-Sing". Dishonest Chris wants him to take it for safety's sake. Eddie isn't his brother so his testimony stands.Beaumonte has Eddie killed thus waking Chris up to a sad reality. After the death of his brother, Chris swears revenge and starts to track down his brother's killers. He has to get them out in the open and starts laying the groundwork. But Beaumonte wants to stop him and anyone he asks for help. Needless to say that may leave allot of excess bodies lying around...It also may not be as easy as he'd like it to be.Other cast members include: Janet Leigh as Karen Stephanson (Eddie's fiancée); Anne Francis as Nancy Corlane (Beaumonte's alcoholic ex-girl); Robert Ellenstein as Det. Sidney Y. Myers (Bob does a great job as Chris's partner who is an honest cop); Vince Edwards as murderer Joey Langley (later "Ben Casey" of TV fame 1961-66); Olive Carey as Selma (Chris's connection to snitches) (wife of Harry Sr., mother of Harry Jr. and well-known character actress in her own right.)

bmacv By 1954, the noir cycle had already sounded most of its dissonant themes. Audiences had seen the crooked cop with the straight-arrow younger brother (The Man Who Cheated Himself); the shantoozie with a past (Gilda, Dead Reckoning, The Last Crooked Mile); the slick mobster beyond the reach of the law with his alcoholic, trophy mistress (Key Largo, Railroaded,The Big Heat); the street-savvy old jane who passes on scuttlebutt for a price (Pickup on South Street). But, as Roy Rowland's Rogue Cop demonstrates, there were still changes to be rung on those themes, jazzed up with fresh casting and pithy writing.Here, the cop gone sour isn't a homicidal brute like Edmond O'Brien in the same year's Shield For Murder (both movies were adapted from books by William McGivern, as was Fritz Lang's The Big Heat). He's dapper, laid-back Robert Taylor, known by his `brothers' on the force to be on the take but given a wide berth despite it (it's the thin blue line's equivalent of omertà). When his younger brother Steve Forrest, also a policeman, identifies a connected hit-man, Taylor receives a summons from his paymaster, crime boss George Raft. Either Forrest recants his testimony, in return for a $15-grand payoff, or he'll be killed (the accused knows too much and might sing if convicted). Upon delivering the ultimatum, Taylor gets rebuffed by Forrest; he then tries to blackmail his brother's fiancée Janet Leigh, a nightclub singer, into trying to change his mind. Taylor doesn't really want Forrest to go bad, he just doesn't want him dead.But Raft plays tougher than Taylor imagines. Lulling Taylor into thinking he still has time, Raft has Forrest shot in the back. And so the worm turns: Using both Leigh and Raft's discarded moll Anne Francis as his allies, Taylor swears vengeance....Crisply photographed by John Seitz, Rogue Cop burrows snugly into its rotten urban core – a city of dreadful night. With its large and aptly chosen cast, it nonetheless rests squarely on the shoulders of its central character, Taylor, who comes through with the performance of his career. At age 42, he passes muster as a burnt-out cop who's sold out for easy money – in this urban jungle, corruption is just another perk passed up only by fools -- but still has the wits and the will to spring a few surprises when cornered. There's plenty of brutal, even sadistic, action, but Rogue Cop is less an action picture than a character study that Taylor, somewhat surprisingly, manages to pull off. With its siblings The Big Heat and Shield For Murder, Rogue Cop makes up a grim tryptich of big-town America in the mid-20th century.

jhawk-2 Robert Taylor plays Chris Kelvaney, a dirty cop on the take with the mob in this exciting police drama. Taylor goes on a campaign of revenge against those very mobsters, who decide to kill Kelvaney's brother, also a cop, for witnessing something that could incriminate the mob leaders.The biggest surprise here is Robert Taylor's performance as the dirty cop. We have seen him play many rather stiff heroic types such as in "Ivanhoe", but here, he is tough and gritty as the dirty cop, and very believable. The dialogue in this movie is sharp and well written and similar to a Raymond Chandler detective novel. There is also a good fist-fight between Alan Hale, Jr. ( yes! the skipper on Gilligans Island) and Robert Taylor. A top notch supporting cast rounds out what is an overall good movie , especially for those who like the old hard-boiled detective stories.