TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Clarissa Mora The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

kenjha A juvenile delinquent witnesses the murder of his father by mobsters and seeks revenge as an adult. This is a brutal crime drama, with lively direction by Fuller, although he goes a bit overboard with shadows, closeups, and zooms. Robertson is not bad, but seems miscast as the tough guy who, driven by vengeance, singlehandedly takes on the syndicate. The best performances are turned in by the two leading actresses: Dorn (recalling Stella Stevens) as a gangster's moll and Kay (recalling Thelma Ritter) as a mother-figure for Robertson. Also notable are Rust as a ruthless mob henchman and Gates as a federal prosecutor.

MartinHafer The exact definition for 'film noir' is a tad vague. While some elements of noir are easy to agree upon (they are gangster/crime films and tend to be gritty and realistic), others are not. To me, a noir film MUST be made in black & white. As to my interpretation of noir, you would have to say that after the early to mid-1960s, noir disappeared in America because films were then all made in color--though they continued to make a few noir films in France--using black & white a bit longer. In light of this, UNDERWORLD USA would have to be among the last American noir movies--and probably the last great one. Now the fact that I loved this film surprised me--though I knew that Sam Fuller could make some dandy films. What made me assume the worst was that I just couldn't imagine Cliff Robertson in the lead in such a dark and gritty style of film. Boy was I wrong--as he proved to be more than equal to the task.The film begins with Tolly Devlin a teenager and well on his way to becoming a career criminal. However, this is interrupted by the beating death of his father by several unknown assailants. The only one young Tolly saw was a guy who was soon sent to prison for life--and it would be tough for Tolly to cross-examine him to find out who did it--after all, he wanted revenge. In an odd move, Tolly appeared to work hard to be caught so he, too, could make it to state prison to talk to this killer. Years pass, but finally he's able to talk to the guy--who is on his deathbed. He learns the other men's identities and comes up with an amazingly intricate plot to get them--intricate because now, a decade later, these men are very, very powerful gangsters. Just approaching them and killing them would be very difficult.I don't want to talk about all the ins and outs of the plan, but in the process several unexpected things occur. First, he actually is able to help the crime commission by taking out these gang members and works closely with them. It is NOT because he has any fondness for law & order but they are a means to his end...period. In addition, he helps a young lady who is caught up in the mob and begins, for the first time, to actually care about someone. Slowly, you see humanity appearing within Tolly and by the end of the film, he is, for the first time, thinking of something other than himself or revenge. As for the ending, it is dandy--making the film well worth seeing.There really isn't anything much to complain about here. The story is original and exciting, the acting is very good and the film appears to have been very well made--though it does lack some of the interesting camera work some noir films employed--not a problem, but I do like the dark shadows and smoke used in some examples of this genre. There is an interesting mistake, however, in the final climactic scene. Tolly falls into a swimming pool and only minutes later, as he's running from the gang headquarters, he's inexplicably dry!! And, for that matter, the death scene at the end is a bit overdone--but not in a way that particularly harms the overall film.If you care, I have seen just about every film Sam Fuller made and I would say that this and STEEL HELMET are probably his very best. He had an amazing knack for making lower budget films that still delivered lots of action and suspense--a lot like super-high quality B-movies.

dbdumonteil Samuel Fuller's films noirs do not know compromise.Only Robert Wise (Against all odds) ,Jules Dassin (Night and the city,Brute Force)and Raoul Walsh (the world in his arms) equaled him.Fuller's world is a ruthless one.And his hero(Robertson) gets acquaintance with it at an early age :his father is killed in an alley and he only sees the killers' shadows on the wall.His revenge will be terrifying ,using the the gangsters ,the cops and even justice itself .The only place in this God-forsaken world is his apartment where the two women bring some humanity ..Beatrice Kay's character is particularly interesting:she is a second mother to the hero and she lives surrounded by baby dolls (to replace the babies I 'll never have)Fuller uses children as a symbol of purity ;two other examples in the movie: when the former prostitute asks Tolly to marry her,we see a photograph of a toddler behind them;and the little girl murdered by Gus on her bike epitomizes sacrificed innocence.And in "the naked kiss" (1964) the toys become real children with whom the heroine tries to pick up the pieces :and then again,innocence is horribly betrayed.Tolly wreaked a dreadful vengeance: even beyond the grave,it continues..the last picture is a raised fist.

moonchildiva So here we have a characterization comparable to Richard Widmark's in Kiss of Death... and yet, obviously, Richard Rust did not receive the promotion one needs to be noticed! But I noticed. And when someone said to me, "Check out Cliff Robertson's white suit", I said, "I didn't even notice him, I was looking at Richard Rust..." Not that everyone else in this film wasn't good, but from the putting on of shades to the turning a zippo in his hand, from his coldness in killing a child to his creepiness in saying he likes lifeguarding for children, from his great profile to his screen presence...here's an ACTOR! As Sadakichi Hartmann said about himself, Richard Rust must have been too great to be noticed. But I saw him. Thank goodness!!