The Mob (1951)

Directed by Robert Parrish; produced by Jerry Bresler

One rainy night, New York City police detective Johnny Damico (Broderick Crawford) witnesses a fatal shooting. The gunman identifies himself as a fellow cop and Damico sends him to call for back-up. Even though it’s only a minute later when Damico realises that he has been duped and the gunman is an imposter, the latter has disappeared. Disgraced and suspended, Damico is nonetheless given a chance to redeem himself. He is sent undercover to the waterfront, into which organised crime is infiltrating. Damico’s job is to find the Mob’s chief in the racket, something the man he saw shot died trying to do.

The most pleasant thing about choosing movies based on one- or two-line synopses of plots, which I often do, is that the gamble sometimes turns out much better than I expect. Broderick Crawford was a fine actor, an Oscar-winner, so he usually gives a very good performance. But The Mob sounded routine, a fun but undemanding time-filler. It’s not; an involving story and an entertaining script, combined with good acting from everyone concerned, make for a fun time at the home-cinema.

Crawford is not the usual leading-man material. Forty years old when he made this film, he looks fifty, with a baggy face, small eyes and a girth that seemed to grow with each movie. But studios in the 1940s and ‘50s were willing to go with unconventional leads, and here he is a sympathetic character the viewer supports. He is even given a love-interest (Betty Buehler); nowadays, even the least likely leading-man would be given a girl half his age with a swimsuit-model’s face and figure. Buehler, though attractive, looks and acts real, and has good rapport with Broderick.

In fact, the cast is exceptional: quite a few actors on their way up appear, including Richard Kiley as a longshoreman, John Marley as a Mob front-man, Ernest Borgnine as a mid-level villain, Neville Brand as a well-dressed thug, and a young Charles Bronson as a stevedore. The performances of even the ‘background’ actors are good.

The story seems to be mundane at the start. But quite a few personalities are introduced and it becomes a real guessing-game as to who is up to what. Few are who they appear to be, beginning of course with Damico, who must maintain his disguise throughout. His character is not the star of the police force; just a hard-working, low-ranking detective. But, despite his initial blunder that sets the story going, he is shown to be intelligent and quick; intuitive, as well. The story does present an unresolved question that is, however, neither vital nor difficult for the viewer to answer himself.

The script is sharp and fun. I’m surprised someone hasn’t written their doctoral thesis on tough-guy sarcasm of the 1940s and ‘50s. It is a dialect of its own. Broderick’s lines would impress the most smart-alecky wise guy in a Bogart movie, and the other characters are as quick. (For example, when asked why he is so eager to get a job on the docks, ‘Flynn’ (Damico’s alias) replies that he just likes hard work; another Irishman replies, “I thought you were Irish…”) None of this comes across as contrived. Instead, one assumes that this is the milieu in which the characters live, work and, probably, grew up.

The direction should be mentioned, as well. There are the expected action scenes, some well-staged fights and shoot-outs, but also instances of tension. The work behind the camera matches that in front.

While it may be considered a B-movie based on its less than A-list stars, The Mob is nonetheless a neat action/mystery/thriller, with above average work in all its major categories.