Review of The Hoodlum

The Hoodlum (1951)
3/10
Hoodlum is horrendous.
21 October 2011
Brevity is the only strong point in this sloppy little noir featuring Laurence Tierney and brother Ed. Contrived and rushed it makes little to no attempt to establish veracity and the whole affair has the feel and look of adults acting kids playing cops and robbers in a neighborhood alleyway.

Career criminal Vincent Lubeck is up for parole and while all indications point to denial his mother comes in and sobs enough to spring him. He goes to work for his brother at his filling station but still filled with rage and self pity decides to rob the bank across the street. He gets a gang together to look conspicuous then on the day of the robbery simply puts the hose back on the pump crosses the street and gets into a fierce gun battle with armored car guards.

The Hoodlum is a mishmash of bad acting and crass composition with complete inattention to detail. The robbery and getaway stumbles, bordering on comic with montages of a fully mobilized LA police force and newspaper stories hitting the streets within ten minutes of the robbery still in progress by way of a three car funeral.

Tierney as usual is convincingly threatening but his ticking time bomb demeanor should make it clear to everyone to stay away from the hair brained heist. The rest of the cast more or less walks on egg shells around violent Vince. Intimidating as Tierney is he remains no match for this haphazardly constructed unintentionally comic caper that collapses atop him.
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