Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

JohnHowardReid Copyright 1 November 1952 by Paramount Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Globe: 15 November 1952. U.S. release: November 1952. U.K. release: 1 December 1952. Australian release: 21 November 1952. Sydney opening at the Prince Edward: 21 November 1952 (ran 3 weeks). 7,797 feet. 86 minutes.SYNOPSIS: John Conroy, an honest, aggressive lawyer and politician, is head of a special committee investigating organized crime in a large Midwestern city. His friend, investigative reporter Jerry McKibbon, is shocked to discover that Conroy's father, Matt, was once a policeman on the syndicate payroll; but McKibbon decides not to tell Conroy about his father. As the committee puts pressure on the syndicate chieftain, Eichelberger, the gangsters decide that Matt Conroy must be killed.NOTES: Although the film was only moderately successful in America and England, it proved to have an astonishing second wind in Australia which made it one of Paramount's top money-earners of the 1950s. The initial Sydney season at the plush Prince Edward cinema had to be pulled for the pre-set engagement of The Greatest Show On Earth. On move-over to the downtown Lyric, a second release grind house, the film attracted such consistent turnaway business, it became Paramount's best sleeper of the decade, being constantly revived and re-circulated. Prints of the film were never idle and even the front-of-house lobby card posters eventually wore out. The Lyric itself re-presented the film "by popular demand" no less than seven or eight times.COMMENT: "Turning Point" is a crime drama that was totally under-rated by half-asleep professional critics (except in Australia). Written by Warren Duff and Horace McCoy, it was photographed and directed in an imaginative film noir style that made most effective use of its natural urban locations (in Los Angeles). Realistic sound is used to augment some tingling action sequences, handled with superb control of crowds and effects. In some ways, the story parallels The Enforcer (1951), but Dieterle's direction is beholden to no-one. Although it does use the real backgrounds beloved of the semi-documentary film-makers, this is no mere reportage approach. Dieterle has directed not only with style, polish and finesse, but at a crackling pace.Oddly, the script has many subtleties which censors didn't notice at the time (although wide-awake audiences did, which would partly account for the film's tremendous popularity, particular;y in Australia): Holden staying the night in Smith's apartment, for example; but even more startlingly, the explicit identification of the crime czar (surely the most vicious ever to appear on celluloid) as Jewish (his name is Eichelberger, and he gets most of his income from usurious money-lending) and of his heroic opponent as a Gentile (at one stage our hero even pointedly asks for a ham sandwich).The principals turn in most believable and arresting performances which just manage to keep a few tenuous steps ahead of the extremely able support cast led by Tom Tully, Ed Begley and as thuggy a group of gangsters as any film noir fan could wish: Don Porter, Ted De Corsia, Neville Brand. An exceptional cameo cast includes Ralph Sanford as the Detroit contact in the pool-room, Howard Freeman, Ray Teal, Carolyn Jones and Jay Adler.

blanche-2 From 1952 Paramount, The Turning Point is a crime drama starring William Holden, Alexis Smith, Edmond O'Brien, and Ed Begley.O'Brien is John Conroy an attorney who has returned to his home town to lead a commission dedicated to wiping out corruption in their city, somewhere in the midwest. Holden is Jerry McKibbon, his childhood friend who is now a sharp and somewhat cynical reporter. He spots McKibbon's idealism right away and thinks he might be headed for a big reality check. Alexis Smith plays Amanda, a socialite who is John's girlfriend and secretary.Some of this is telegraphed early. First off, how long does anyone think Amanda will stay Ed Begley's girlfriend once she sees William Holden? Then John happily tells his police detective father that he is hiring him as chief investigator for the commission. His father (Tom Tully) doesn't want the job. Now why do we suppose that is?Ed Begley is the head mobster, Neil Eichelberger, a crumb who doesn't care whom he has to kill or blow up to get his way. One of his henchman is Roy Ackerman (Danny Dayton). They're both foul. Even with some predictability, this is a well-acted, tight story directed by William Dieterle. The end takes place at a boxing match and is exciting. Watch for Neville Brand as an out of town hit man at the end of the film.For trivia buffs, there are some uncredited people who rose above being uncredited: Carolyn Jones in her first film; '50s starlet Rachel Ames, who joined the cast of General Hospital in 1964, a year after its debut. She still occasionally makes an appearance, and she looks fantastic. Also Whit Bissell and Robert Rockwell (Mr. Boynton on Our Miss Brooks). Good movie.

secondtake The Turning Point (1952)Great cast (good guys and bad), great director (William Dieterle is a stalwart Hollywood director who did "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" among many others), and solid plot. You can't go wrong. It moves fast, it makes sense, it has drama and romance, and a great shoot-em-up ending in a boxing arena.And yet something is withheld. I think it's partly camera-work, all very shadowy and excellent, but not elegant, not pumped up and dramatic. The story, as well, is a little routine. By 1952 this kind of crime noir gangster film is old stuff. They even hint at this in the movie, by saying that the unnamed midwestern city is seeing a rise in crime in the old style, a return of 1920s gangsterism. But if they mean to return to the great gangster films, they don't quite make it.But it's still really fine--William Holden is an understated player and therefore underrated. And the co-lead, the star of "D.O.A." and "The Hitchhiker" among a few other lesser films, is Edmond O'Brien, who is maybe at his best here. You see a curious position for Holden, hot off of "Sunset Blvd.," in a somewhat secondary role, because he might be the leading hunk, but O'Brien is the leading man.A good film without that special something to lift it up, but without a flaw, either, in any usual sense. Totally a pleasure in its understated approach.

dbdumonteil Robert Wise's "the captive city" was released the same year and it's roughly the same subject .William Dieterle's work is not as absorbing because his directing is too static and academic in spite of a good cast.Melodramatic elements interfere with the film noir treatment -the father trying to redeem himself after behaving very bad,but he did it in order to pay his son 's studies etc etc -.Fortunately,the last sequence avoids pathos .Wise's film was more interesting because the enemy was almost invisible and the stranglehold it had on the town was complete though.In Dieterle's movie ,in spite of a lot of violence,we never really feel a threatening atmosphere.