Year:  1955
Rating: 7.0

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Gritty low-budget crime film from the 1950's that gets so much right. The days of Al Capone have come to an end and a new crime boss is in charge. The cops send an accountant in undercover to bring the syndicate down. It flows well and doesn't waste a minute. There are two hard-bitten dames that are treated badly - one is beaten up like a rag doll (off-screen), while the other willingly sleeps with the crime boss (assumed) to get justice. The dialogue is pure noir. I wish I could speak like that - short staccato bursts of rusty nail language that are like a sock to the jaw. The actors are fine with particular kudos to Paul Stewart who plays the crime boss low key and classy - the kind of boss I would have liked to have - unless you rat on him of course. Dennis O'Keefe is ok as the solid citizen who goes undercover. Most of us would have been tempted to stay there. Nice lifestyle.


But the main reason I picked the film was the duo of Abbe Lane and Xavier Cugat. Cugat was one of the great band leaders in the 1940's and 50's orchestrating smooth romantic Latin tunes. I have a bunch of his music. Wong Kar-wai has used his music in a few of his films. One of his singers was Abbe Lane who most people thought was Latin for her looks and singing - but she was from Brooklyn and was Jewish. And was gorgeous. She had a good career and I have a few of her albums as well. She was also married to Cugat from 1952 to 1964. He dumped her for a younger version - Charo - who he married in 1966. She was born in 1951. Work out the numbers. Lane only sings one song in the film unfortunately and Cugat has a much larger role than he did in all those MGM musicals of the 40's.