moonspinner55 Review of 13 West Street

13 West Street (1962)

Good story hindered by overheated treatment and an ailing star...

[5/10 · 13 August 2007]

Alan Ladd, in his second-to-last film, plays some sort of scientist in Los Angeles who manages to run out of gas...in his car alone...at night in a bad neighborhood. A pack of country club teenagers in a souped-up car jump him and bust a couple of ribs, bringing Rod Steiger's detective ("Juvenile Division") into the picture, but Ladd can't wait for the slow arm of the law to bring him justice and looks for the boys on his own. Adaptation of Leigh Brackett's novel "The Tiger Among Us" (a better title!), the movie is a bit overwrought and wild-eyed, though the mechanics of the story are gripping, if utterly unpleasant. Steiger looks a little sheepish here and is disappointing, but Ladd's non-present performance is the real shame; his face puffy and jowly, his lips thin, Ladd is barely even alert. He has a fairly intense role here, but the fading actor just walks through it. Some of the details about the case are very interesting (particularly the wealthy kids involved, and how they relate to their indifferent parents), but the promising set-up for the plot is let down by all the overripe melodrama. Still, a curious, watchable attempt at delinquent terrors, perhaps a precursor to "Death Wish". ** from ****