This was a good film because (1) it was fairly fast-moving; (2) had some humorous and clever dialog; (3) was nicely photographed; (4) and had solid acting. It's tough to ask for a whole lot more.
I'm surprised this film has never been issued on VHS or DVD, at least not to my knowledge. It has well-known actors: Broderick Crawford, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Kiley, Neville Brand and others.
The beginning was very original. Our cop hero, "Johnny Damico" (Crawford) comes across a killing and stops a man in the pouring rain who is standing over a dead body. The upright man has a gun in his hand. Damico stops him, but the man pleads "Don't shoot; I'm a cop" and shows him his badge. "Okay," says Damico, and hands the man back his badge and gun. He then tells him to go over to the nearby drug store and phone this one in while he stays with the body. That's the last our man sees the "cop" who, it turns out, had a fake badge and really was the killer. Unfortunately, the good guy never really got much of a look on the bad guy, too.
Damico, being spared walking the beat for the rest of his life or being demoted to kindergarten monitor - or just plain being kicked out of the force for his (understandable) mistake - is given the option of atoning by infiltrating the local longshoreman's union and getting the goods on the big mobster in town. That part is nothing new in films but it was interesting to see how Crawford talked his way deeper and deeper into the mob.
Also, the characters in this film were colorful. The amount of wisecracks, insults and the like also added greatly to the enjoyment of this film. There were excellent film-noir-type lines in here.Yet, this movie had more of a straight drama or crime film than "noir." The only thing that was odd was when one of the "dames" in here told Crawford a couple of times how cute he was. Broderick Crawford "cute?" Now, there's a first!
I'm surprised this film has never been issued on VHS or DVD, at least not to my knowledge. It has well-known actors: Broderick Crawford, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Kiley, Neville Brand and others.
The beginning was very original. Our cop hero, "Johnny Damico" (Crawford) comes across a killing and stops a man in the pouring rain who is standing over a dead body. The upright man has a gun in his hand. Damico stops him, but the man pleads "Don't shoot; I'm a cop" and shows him his badge. "Okay," says Damico, and hands the man back his badge and gun. He then tells him to go over to the nearby drug store and phone this one in while he stays with the body. That's the last our man sees the "cop" who, it turns out, had a fake badge and really was the killer. Unfortunately, the good guy never really got much of a look on the bad guy, too.
Damico, being spared walking the beat for the rest of his life or being demoted to kindergarten monitor - or just plain being kicked out of the force for his (understandable) mistake - is given the option of atoning by infiltrating the local longshoreman's union and getting the goods on the big mobster in town. That part is nothing new in films but it was interesting to see how Crawford talked his way deeper and deeper into the mob.
Also, the characters in this film were colorful. The amount of wisecracks, insults and the like also added greatly to the enjoyment of this film. There were excellent film-noir-type lines in here.Yet, this movie had more of a straight drama or crime film than "noir." The only thing that was odd was when one of the "dames" in here told Crawford a couple of times how cute he was. Broderick Crawford "cute?" Now, there's a first!