Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

hwg1957-102-265704 'The Mob' stars Broderick Crawford as a suspended policeman who goes undercover down the waterfront to investigate racketeering and find the boss of bosses. It takes time for him to wangle his way into the mob which he does with toughness and intelligence and discover some people who are not what they seem. It is well directed by Robert Parrish and filmed by Joseph Walker. (The initial scene in the rain is excellently shot).Crawford is very good and he is ably supported by familiar but welcome actors; Ernest Borgnine, Richard Kiley, Neville Brand, John Marley and Ralph Dumke. Charles Bronson appears very briefly. Betty Buehler as the girlfriend has only a minor role (and only had a very short film career) but is warm and likable in her short scenes. The main strength of the film is the wonderful hard boiled dialogue delivered enthusiastically by the cast. One wonders how much of it was in the original novel by Ferguson Findley or was added by William Bowers who wrote the screenplay. George Duning provides a good music score.

classicsoncall If one didn't know better, it looks like this might have been a training film for future police detectives. How'd you like the way the cops planted a phony picture of Johnny Damico (Broderick Crawford) in the paper with a phony story to back it up? Or the wise guy banter Johnny used in his guise of Tim Flynn to ingratiate himself with big time gangsters? And what about rigging Smoothie's (Matt Crowley) car with the dripping liquid that glowed in the dark under a fluorescent lamp? Can you really do that? I thought it was pretty clever.I wasn't quite ready to give this movie credit as a film noir because there are really no sultry femme fatales to speak of, but in this case I don't think it matters. There are all kinds of shady characters prowling around with the likes of Ernest Borgnine, Neville Brand and Richard Kiley as part of the main event, and if you're sharp, you'll pick up on quick cameos by character actors Harry Lauter, Don Megowan and a still unknown Charles Bronson, a real treat for gangster film fans.The picture has it's share of neat twists, as in Richard Kiley's Clancy character turning out to be another undercover cop, and the dopey bartender Smoothie proving to be the mastermind criminal Blackie Clegg. Crawford makes the picture with his snappy dialog that's quick witted and off the cuff, and he's good with his fists when he has to be, and sometimes even when he doesn't. The ending comes off as a bit forced with the rooftop snipers waiting for bad guy Blackie, but the best has to be the way Clancy sets up Johnny for the closing scene. You'll just have to check it out for yourself.

Robert J. Maxwell Those were the days, working with what was called "break hold cargo," loading and unloading sacks and crates from ships. Now everything is pre-packed and sealed in a container that a crane lifts neatly from the hold and sits down gently on the trailer of an eighteen wheeler. No fuss, no muss, no jobs. It's why San Francisco is no longer a port, having lost its business to the more modernized Oakland across the bay. When I was a kid I used to wander the docks on New York's waterfront and pick up oddments like rolls of cinnamon from Sumatra (or so I imagined) or shards of twisted cork from Portugal.In 1951, the period of this movie, a stevedore's job may have been hard to come by but the corruption was all over the place. The basic story is that of "On the Waterfront" except simpler and more careless. Instead of Marlon Brando discovering he has a conscience, we have gruff Broderick Crawford doing his job as an undercover cop, slugging and getting slugged. Among the bad guys who are ripping off the union are John Marley, Ernest Borgnine, and Neville Brand -- a real group of merry men. There are some women involved too, but not to any great extent.I realize other have found this more entertaining than I did. I thought it achieved the routine. Crawford is such a slob, he never looks right in a suit -- and a pretty blond tells him he's "cute", twice. And he growls like a German shepherd when he speaks, even when he's trying to be pleasant.Richard Kiley isn't too convincing as a waterfront working stiff. He sounds educated and looks it too. He once did a PBS special in which he did nothing much but read and enact poems that are high school standards, like "Richard Corey" and "Mr. Flood's Party." Can I quote the last stanza?"There was not much that was ahead of him, And there was nothing in the town below— Where strangers would have shut the many doors That many friends had opened long ago." What a portrait of desolation, and Kiley turned it into one of the most moving recitations I've ever heard. I love the guy but he seems miscast here.The art direction is pedestrian and the milieu is one of those unnamed cities. Unnamed because it describes miscreance in high place. The dialog, though, has little sparkles sprinkled throughout. Not Edwin Arlington Robinson but dismissible and neat exchanges. "Tell me all about yourself," says a a pretty blond gangster's moll to the drunk and disheveled Crawford. "I come from a typical family. My father was an oil executive and my mother was a socialite." The jealous Kiley asks: "Did they ever marry?"Well, if it's not exceptional for most of the movie, it livens up towards the end. It's not bad in any way but except for a few performances and the capacity shown by the dialog to insinuate its way out of the humdrum, it's just what you'd expect.

Henchman_Number1 Off duty police detective Johnny Damico (Broderick Crawford) lets a killer slip through his hands after witnessing a mob hit. Damico is given a chance to redeem himself by going undercover to break up a waterfront crime racket and find the kingpin that ordered the hit. Damico under the assumed identity of small time New Orleans hoodlum Johnny Flynn, infiltrates the docks to find the 'big guy' known only as Blackie Clegg. Along the way Damico comes across an assortment of characters played by, at the time, relatively unknown actors like Ernest Borgnine, Neville Brand, Richard Kiley, and John Marley. Look for Charles Bronson in one of his earliest screen appearances in an uncredited role as a dock hand.Director Robert Parrish works what might have been routine police procedural crime drama into an edge of the seat mystery. A lot of the credit has to be given to writer William Bowers who Parrish teamed up with on his previous movie Cry Danger starring Dick Powell. Both enjoy a fast paced script with tongue in cheek banter, hinting of the same style that Bowers would use almost twenty years later when he wrote the script for Support Your Local Sheriff! While an actor like Powell would seem better suited for this type role, Crawford just off an Oscar win for All the Kings Men two years before, comes off surprisingly natural as a wise cracking undercover cop. The Mob though listed as film noir really isn't noir in the classic sense though it does have some of the elements. The Mob is an enjoyable 1950's style mystery crime drama. The run time of 87 minutes breezes by and keeps you guessing. Fans of the genre will enjoy this one.