Nackte Straßen

Anthony Quinn stars in "The Naked Street," a 1955 film with Farley Granger, Anne Bancroft, and Peter Graves.

Quinn plays a gangster, Phil Regal, whose sister Rosalie (Bancroft) is pregnant and unmarried. Nowadays, this would be a cause for celebration. Back then, it was a scandal. The father is Nicky Bradna (Granger) who is at the moment on death row for killing a liquor store owner while he was stealing his money.

Regal is a wonderful son to his mother (Else Baeck) and a protective brother, but he's basically involved in lots of illegal activities.

Phil wants Nicky to marry Rosalie, so he drops bundles of cash in the right places. Suddenly the witnesses have second thoughts about what they saw and the DA is willing to give him another trial. Soon he's out, married to Rosalie, and driving a truck, which is not what he wanted to do. But big brother insisted.

It doesn't take Nicky long to start acting up - he and Rosalie suffer a tragedy, he doesn't like his job, and Regal wants him out of the way.

Pretty good noir, and Anthony Quinn does a wonderful job showing us the human being beneath the tough gangster. Anne Bancroft is very young, but excellent in her part, and Farley Granger does well as the loser husband.

"The Naked Street" is a derivative story, so it's not particularly special, but it is worth a look.

The acting makes the movie, especially gang boss Regal (Quinn) and his naive sister Rosalie (Bancroft). Regal may be a ruthless racketeer outside his family, but inside, he's a protective pussycat. That is, until cheap Lothario Bradna (Granger) first knocks-up Rosalie and then philanders after Regal forces him to marry her. And that's after Regal gets him off a murder-one rap so the irresponsible kid can do the right thing. Now, feeling betrayed, Regal's really angry, so we know Bradna's in for even worse trouble.

The movie's got some twists and turns, not all being very plausible. But that's okay because Quinn delivers a scary and riveting performance. The actor's just back from Italy where he starred in the powerful classic La Strada (1954). So maybe he was trying to show Hollywood a thing or two since he delivers a lot more than the role requires. Then there's Bancroft, already a magnetic personality, and on her way to an Oscar-studded career. Looks to me like the producers spent their money on the cast and not on the visuals that are pretty bland and bare-bones. But then the supporting cast is full of familiar faces, especially up-and-comers like Van Cleef and Graves, along with great vets like Bissell and Flavin.

Five-years earlier and I expect the film would have been straight noir, without the moralizing voice-over. But this is the McCarthy Cold War period, so there can't be any lingering ambiguity. Still, it's a fairly gritty little film with a compelling central performance that deserves better than near- total Hollywood obscurity, despite the titillating title.

The Naked Street (1955)

*** (out of 4)

Gangster Phil Regal (Anthony Quinn) finds out that his younger sister Rosalie (Anne Bancroft) is pregnant by criminal Nicky Bradna (Farley Granger) who just happens to be at Sing Sing and on death row. Regal manages to scare the witnesses who change their testimony and Nicky is released but soon the gangster regrets what he did. THE NAKED STREET seems to have mostly negative reviews and while I can admit that the film has some major flaws, the cast is simply so great that it's impossible not to get caught up in everything going on and in the end I really enjoyed the picture. There's no question that the story itself is pretty far-fetched in the way the gangster is able to pull a man off death row and it's even more far-fetched when you come to the climax of everything. I won't spoil what happens but the logic behind it is set at a zero. Another problem is that the sister character was really poorly written and her dumbness really gets annoying after a while. I mean, her brother is a big time gangster yet she never realized how he gave her everything with having a "real" job? The morals of her character also goes back and forth as the film moves along, which is another problem. Outside of those things I thought the film was entertaining. Quinn is wonderful as the tough gangster who isn't afraid to push people around to get what he wants. For 1955 his performance is pretty raw and rough and it really reminded me of the stuff we used to see from the pre-code Warner gangster pics of the early 1930s. Granger is also very believable as the lover boy who simply got caught up in a bad crime. Even though her character is weak, Bancroft at least delivers a fine performance as does Peter Graves who plays a reporter. I also really liked how the Quinn character worries about his sister being pregnant, unmarried and what this would make her look like. The moral worries of a gangster was an interesting touch and it's handled in a rather raw fashion, which certainly wasn't normal for this era. THE NAKED STREET has some issues but for the most part it's worth watching.

Enjoyed this film from the 1950's with Anthony Quinn playing the role as Phil Regal, mobster in a section of New York City. Nicky Bradna, (Farley Granger) was a young guy trying to go straight after getting out of prison and his girl friend is Rosalie Regalzyk, (Anne Bancroft. Rosalie just so happens to be the sister to Phil and so he managed to get Nicky out of jail. There is a horrible event which happens to Nicky and Rosalie Bradna, and Nick goes wild and gets himself deep into the world of crime which takes the entire film in a different direction. Anthony Quinn put his heart and soul into this role as being a mean and cruel and hateful mobster. If you like Anthony Quinn, don't miss this film, you will greatly enjoy viewing it.

A rather silly, though not exactly unentertaining, noir. Anthony Quinn stars as a big-time gangster who discovers his sister (Anne Bancroft) is pregnant. The catch? The guy who did it (Farley Granger) is now on death row. Quinn won't let his sister's kid be born a bastard, so he's goes about intimidating the witnesses to Granger's crime and gets him a retrial. It works (the justice system was even more screwed up back then than it is now, apparently), but, even though he's now married to Bancroft and should be uber-grateful to Quinn for springing him, Granger is still kind of a douchebag, treating poor Bancroft like crap, smacking her around and cheating on her and stuff. This, of course, does not please Quinn whatsoever. Peter Graves also co-stars as a newspaper man who also has a thing for Bancroft. Quinn is really good in the film, but it's not one that plays to Granger's strengths. He's best as a nervous type, like in Rope, Strangers on a Train and Edge of Doom. He's not a good tough guy. This can also be found on Netflix Instant.