Directed
by Arnold Laven; produced by Arthur Gardner and Jules V Levy
A
typical, hard-working FBI officer (Kenneth Tobey) is involved with three cases
simultaneously: those of a wanted killer, a car-theft ring and a blackmailer.
During a visit to woman who claims to have information on one of these cases,
the officer is shot to death, and it’s up to his superior (Broderick Crawford)
to find out which of the late man’s inquiries led to his murder.
The
title of Down Three Dark Streets is
metaphorical, referring to the mysteries involved in the trio of cases. It
makes the movie sound more of a film noir than it is. It’s actually a routine
police procedural. It is interesting
to see a fictional detective investigating more than one case at once; I gather
that this is normal in law enforcement agencies – the idea of one policeman for
every crime must be as close to paradise as most cops dare dream – but I think
I’ve seen it elsewhere only on episodes of Barney
Miller. In the event, though, this intriguing idea doesn’t really make Down Three Dark Streets intriguing
itself. We move from one case to another as different leads are followed and,
while this keeps us watching, it does little more than that.
Crawford
is a bit of a tough actor for me to place. Not compelling enough to be a lead
and too strong to be a supporting player, it is telling that his best role and
movie was All the King’s Men, in
which he shared screen-time with John Ireland, much more of a character actor.
In Down Three Dark Streets, Crawford
does well but his character never involved me. The other performers do better,
especially Martha Hyer, as a woman with a doomed fascination for a killer; Ruth
Roman, as the frightened blackmail-victim, and Marisa Pavan, as a brave and
resourceful blind woman.
The
real culprit in the film is the writing. This is credited to ‘The Gordons’
(Gordon Gordon (who could have been The Gordons by himself) and Mildred Gordon)
and Bernard C Schoenfeld. The Gordons seemed to have been principally novelists,
perhaps best known, if that can be said in this case, for the novel on which
the movie That Darn Cat was based.
Here, the story, or stories, are adequate, and no more. The supporting
characters carry them, not the script. And the motivation for the killing of
Tobey is never revealed; neither is the reason for the call to Tobey in the
first place.
Even
with better writing, though, Down Three
Dark Streets may not have been a success. While the trio of cases give a
difference to the format of the movie, they also suggest that no one component
was strong or interesting enough on its own. Consequently, each becomes padding
to the others. The climax has minor tension, but that is the most that may be
said of it.
Down Three Dark Streets is
not even an adequate time-filler, as one feels that the time could have been
devoted to any number of more entertaining films.
I'm not much of a movie watcher, mostly because I can't sit still that long. It's a little easier these days with PVR and the like.
ReplyDeleteI do like crime stories and was thinking this might be a movie for me, but I'm guessing not, based on the limited story line. No answer for the death of the detective is strange to say the least. I'm impressed you watched the entire movie!
Eileen
I usually try to watch even an entire bad movie just to give it a chance to redeem itself in the third reel.
Deletespeaking of That Darn Cat; another blogger just reviewed the remake of that film
ReplyDeletehttps://cuddlywumps.blogspot.com/
the above is their blog address if you would like to see their review~ ☺♥
Thanks for the direction; I read the review. It was a good review - and a bad film, but I was suspecting the latter anyway...
Delete