Hyänen der Unterwelt

While not a fan of Raft's starring qualities for major studio films, I really enjoy him in tough little black and white B films like this. Low budget, filmed quickly, they seem a good fit for his real life tough, sometimes lowlife persona and abilities. I intend this as a compliment to Raft and if you watch "Loan Shark" you will see what I mean.

In addition to Raft you have here a fine supporting cast including one of the best John Hoyt crime performances of his long distinguished career.

Factories, lunch boxes and cheap hoods. Really evokes the underside of the 1950's and moves along briskly. Surprisingly entertaining.

OK: That's only at the beginning. catch the start of this nice little noir. Raft makes an entrance any diva would have been pleased with. And he arrives to visit his sister. On the way, he passes a squabbling couple. The sister greets him with love and concern, commenting on how tired he looks. And then he goes to soak in a hot bath! Later in the movie, we see that the authors have been influenced by another play that became a movie: The girlfriend of one of the bad guys suddenly sounds like Judy Holliday as Billie Dawn, from "Born yesterday." It may indeed have been unconscious. But wait: The climactic scene -- and this is giving nothing away -- is set in a theater.

All this said, it's an excellent movie for something on so obviously low a budget. Raft is the same as he usually was. He's not exciting but he gives a solid performance. The lead female, Dorothy Hart, is attractive and convincing. The supporting cast is very good and they're all well directed.

It's by no means a great movie but it's a decent, good one, worth your time.

Loan Shark is a nice little gangster melodrama centering in on the loan sharking racket. By the time this movie was made, George Raft's popularity was dwindling. But for George Raft fans, this movie still makes the grade. In my opinion, with the exception of "Each dawn I Die", "They drive by night" and "Invisible Stripes", his best movies were done in the 1950's. In Loan Shark, Raft is cast as Joe Gargan, a tough ex con who wants to settle down and go straight by working with his brother-in-law's tire company. But alas, the tire plant is infected by a wave of assaults and killings. The plant's general manager pleads with Raft to find the criminals responsible and perhaps put an end to the bloodshed. Watch for Russell Johnson (TV's "the professor" on Gilligan's Island")in an early role.

Good little crime drama at a time when TV and Technicolor were shoving B-flicks off the marquee. Raft may be along in years (51) for his romantic clinches, but he sure as heck continues as one of Hollywood's premier tough guys. Then too, he's in rough company with two of the industry's best no-nonsense supporting actors, Hoyt and Stewart. Together the three create a solid core of tough-guy menace that carries the storyline.

Seems Joe (Raft) is just out of prison and wants to go straight, but his sister's husband has been killed by loan sharks whose ruinous effect on working people he soon learns about. So he decides to to expose the criminal organization by going undercover and using his savvy tough-guy skills to disrupt their operation. Those scenes of him undercover in an actual tire factory are riveting and heighten the movie's general sense of menace, almost like a mechanical version of hell. On the other hand, too bad the producers used empty studio sets for supposed city streets that disrupt that general sense of realism. Also, the shootout could use less clumsy staging. Nonetheless, be sure to catch the naughty innuendo between Vince (Hoyt) and his cheap blonde mistress (Dean) - yeah, censorship's deadening 20-year grip is loosening.

Anyway, the flick's got a solid core of drama and suspense that also rewards fans of the inimitable George Raft, so don't pass it up.

George Raft Riding His Stone-Faced Star Status to the End.

Here, at 57, Plays an Ex-Con, Ex-Boxer, that is a Hit with the Ladies and Hits His Share of Hoods.

He's Not Only an Ex-Pug, He's Proficient in Judo too.

A B-Movie that Visually has some Unexpected Style and Flourishes.

Grounded in a Tire-Factory with Plenty of Machinery and Production Techniques Inside the Plant.

A Good Cast with Paul Stewart and Dorthy Hart and some Familiar TV and B-Movie Faces.

It's a Fast-Paced with a Goodly Amount of Contrivances as Raft Bullies HIs Way into the "Trust" of the Mob.

Overall, a Better than Average Late-Life Raft Vehicle and Early-Fifties Near Noir.

Worth a Watch.