Mörder Syndikat San Francisco

Hoodlum empire is a considerably better film than the other reviews here would have you believe. I have just watched it courtesy of an olive films blu ray and I must say I enjoyed it. It's quite a low budget film but it has some great moments. John Russell is the main character and I must admit it's the first film I've seen that he has such a big part, he's a little wooden for sure but he's not too bad in this film. The plot tells he story of a gangster who during ww2 changes into a decent person and wants to start afresh but legit. But the mob try everything to pull him back. Underrated film I think that deserves Wider appraisal.

This film noir story is told mostly in the form of flashbacks. It begins to drag a bit in the second half and one gets a little antsy waiting to find out how the good guy gets off in the end, which we assume he does.

Oddly, the main actor in this film, John Russell - the hero of the movie - is not listed on the back on the video box, in critics reviews or even in the film! The most interesting character in "Nick Mansani," played by Luther Adler. Meanwhile, Claire Trevor plays her normal film noir role of the unhappy woman, in this case the "scorned woman." Forrest Tucker was pretty good as the hot- headed hit man, too.

However, overall this was just fair as film noirs go; nothing special to make it stand out. In truth, too many flashbacks ruined this film.

OK, this ain't The Godfather, and the budget for this film proves that beyond a doubt. However, despite its low production values, the actors give it their best shot, and the storyline is interesting for two reasons. One is the war connection; war connections can be very strong. The second reason it is interesting is because these people have known each other since childhood; those connections can be very strong as well.

When i was 18, I had to choose being in a straight job for less money, or joining a few of my good friends who were in the illegitimate gambling business. I chose the straight job; more because I feared what my mother would have thought, than anything else.

Joe Gray comes to the same crossroads after he gets out of the Army. He chooses to go straight. But sometimes, it is harder to go straight than one might imagine.

There are good performances all around in this one; and it is a nice, watchable crime film. There is a wordy, overwrought committee member, but other than him, the rest is fine.

Joe Gray, a former gangster who became a hero in World War Two, leads a respectable life until he is called to testify before a grand jury looking into racketeer activity. Of course his former mob cronies, one of whom is his uncle, do not want him to testify and threaten his family. This would have been a good thriller if it did not have the overlong flashback sequences. The flashback to World War Two is overlong, pointless, and looks cheap. Luther Adler and Brian Donlevy give good performances. Even Forrest Tucker is O.K. But John Russell as Joe Gray is stiff and dull. His performance is an embarrassment.

I do not know enough about Joseph Kane, other than he served the Republic Studios for much of his career and directed countless Roy Rogers and Gene Autry Westerns, all of them support features in the 1930s and 1940s.

In HOODLUM EMPIRE, he uses flashbacks and a number of characters to tell the tale of Joe Grey, believably played by the towering John Russell, a former criminal who serves in the US Army in Europe and in the process makes friends of his unit's men, including Brian Donlevy, who plays an untypically good man in the role of Senator Bill Stephens, a crusader against all kinds of illegal trade, right down to slot machines.

Luther Adler steals the show as Nick Nancani, the hoodlum placing those slot machines in all restaurants and clubs in town - Central City, no less - under the name of... Joe Grey, who has decided to cut ties with crime and refuses to have one-armed bandits in his restaurant.

Claire Trevor also does well as the not too pure damsel in love with Grey, as does Vera Ralston as Grey's much purer French wife (her US English accent miraculously unscathed), and together with Rev Simon Andrews (righteously played by Grant Withers) they rescue Grey from the slot machine trap set by Uncle Nancani, to make it look like he had no part in his own shady business empire.

Truth to tell, the script suffers from some unevenness, and the flashbacks do not dovetail credibly, but HOODLUM EMPIRE nonetheless deserves watching. The B&W cinematography is good enough to belie the meager budget. 7/10.