THE HOODLUM is a film noir starring one of cinema's true hard men, Laurence Tierney, an actor who was by all accounts just as volatile and scary off the screen as he was on it. Certainly his larger than life presence is exploited to the full in this otherwise uninteresting thriller that desperately lacks a sympathetic character.
The story sees Tierney's small-time crook planning a big heist and generally abusing everybody around him, even his own family members. There's implied sexual violence and a general ill feeling towards everyone. Of course the viewer can guess right from the outset what's going to happen to Tierney come the end but this is about the journey there. Sadly, it's not a very interesting journey, too constrained by budgetary deficiency to truly impress or indeed entertain.
The story sees Tierney's small-time crook planning a big heist and generally abusing everybody around him, even his own family members. There's implied sexual violence and a general ill feeling towards everyone. Of course the viewer can guess right from the outset what's going to happen to Tierney come the end but this is about the journey there. Sadly, it's not a very interesting journey, too constrained by budgetary deficiency to truly impress or indeed entertain.