When Gangland Strikes

Slim Pickens is the star of this film; that is when you know your film is in trouble. Slim is funny, and he even uses his own name. His Mayberry personality would have fit in perfectly with Barney Fife and the other characters of Mayberry, and he brings some comic relief to a really bad script that is pretty funny itself; but unintentionally. After a silly beginning, a judge tries to shield his adopted daughter from her mother's unfortunate past. And his actions lead to his removal from office.

But when his stepdaughter is accused of killing the man responsible for his removal from office, the judge springs into action as Perry Mason. Aside from being a very unlikely series of events, the script is weak in several other areas. It eventually collapses under its own weight and becomes a pure filler for a double feature at your local drive-in.

Let's be straight, that's not the best Republic pictures movie, ten million times worst than any Warner Bros production of the same kind, and made twenty years earlier. It is not fast paced, it is talkative, flat, predictable but, I agree, rare. But rare doesn't mean interesting. RG Sprinsteen was not a beginner at this time, and his best years will be confirmed a bit later. It is a crime drama which I don't recommend at all, or only for die hard crime gems diggers. And it is necessary to have much courage to finally make it till the end. Republic pictures were good on westerns and of course serials, the best ever from the Hollywood film industry.

Bmavc reviewed this film some time ago and compared it to an Andy Hardy movie. Well, I think their analysis is brilliant and I wish I'd said that first! But they're right...this crime film does seem to harken to Judge Hardy and his wise, old fashioned views of law and order.

The film begins with Duke (Anthony Caruso) shooting a man dead in a bowling alley. The scene then switches to a small town and follows the exploits of a folksy county prosecutor--a nice man who is more concerned with justice and right versus the letter of the law. How does this relate to Duke's murder? Well, his lawyer manages to get his case sent to a different venue...this nice man's town. Why would they want him to be trying the case? Well, it seems Duke has something on the old man...some bit of blackmail. But this isn't the end of the story...no...there's far, far more to it.

As I mentioned above, it sure reminded me of a Judge Hardy film...minus Andy and with the addition of some film noir elements. Anthony Caruso was an amazing character actor and played gangsters as well as anyone...and he is in top form here. Overall, very enjoyable and worth your time.

By the way, this is one of Republic Studio's last films before they folded in the late 1950s. Also, I thought it very unusual that the murder in the opening scene featured a lot of blood...something very rare for movies back then.

Gangster Anthony Caruso is up on murder charges. Into his hands falls proof that Marjie Millar, the daughter of county prosecutor Raymond Greenleaf, is actually the daughter of a woman Greenleaf put in prison for life; Miss Millar was born in prison, Greenleaf adopted her, and no one knows it. Caruso has the trial venue shifted so Greenleaf is the prosecutor, then blackmails him into dismissing in return for not revealing his daughter's shameful origins. This riles up businessman Ralph Dumke into getting Greenleaf recalled; the replacement is John Hudson, Dumke's nephew and Miss Millar's fiance. He immediately reopens the case against Caruso.

Greenleaf gets a rare chance to headline a movie, and is just fine as an aw-shucks sort of lawyer, whom Slim Pickens (whose character name here is 'Slim Pickett') keeps trying to retire so they can go fishing every day. The serious parts of the movie are entirely predictable, but director R. G. Springsteen brings a delightful air to the goings-on of a small county seat, reminiscent of John Ford's collaborations with Will Rogers. Keep an eye out for Mary Treen, Morris Ankrum, Dick Elliott, Richard Deacon, and in his last movie, Robert Emmett Keane.

Republic Pictures was in its waning days in 1956 when this strange, unsatisfying crime drama was made by a crew who had made many excellent later serials for Republic. A poor script with clashing moods, unrealistic dialogue, lines written solely to match later plot points that sound odd when spoken in dramatic situations, a "hero" who is not very sympathetic for most of the movie, continuity errors that are surprising for the slick professionals at Republic pictures (characters called by different names, rough edits that don't match what just happened and look like a Tarantino film, etc.), characters whose reactions to important events are not like anything you've ever seen in real life--there are many, many flaws in this film. It could almost be used in a screenwriting class for a "how NOT to write a screenplay" unit. The class could stop the tape every minute or two and point out the flaws. The film LOOKS good as Republic product usually does. The acting is convincing, although even the best actors can't do much with a poor script. On a positive note,the first five and last five minutes of the film are genuinely exciting. The film starts off like a hard-boiled crime film and ends like an over-the-top courtroom drama, but the middle 75% is a slow-moving, "Andy Hardy"-style smalltown drama. Except for Slim Pickens' comic relief and Anthony Caruso as the gangster referred to in the title, the pace is slow.Raymond Greenleaf as a smalltown prosecutor begins as an affable, gentle character out of a Capra film, but his chronic inactivity will make him an unsympathetic character to most viewers. He throws an important case with seemingly no remorse, blackmailed about something that for many viewers would not be a major issue. I felt that the character was too lazy to do anything to resolve the situation about which he was blackmailed. I could go on and on about the flaws and inconsistencies in this film. My fiancee and I spent about an hour discussing a laundry list of problems after the film--more time than we spent discussing OLEANNA, which we saw last week. Finally, the copy on the back cover of this video is completely deceptive. I can't believe the person who wrote the notes even watched the enclosed film. It is NOT a noir film in any way. It is NOT an exciting film, except for brief scenes at the beginning and end. As a devoted fan of Republic Pictures product, I found the film an interesting failure, but I can't recommend it to anyone who is not a serious Republic Pictures collector. There are some fine products from the 1955 and 1956 years at Republic, but this is not one of them and I wonder why Republic chose to issue this on VHS when 9/10 of their crime dramas from the 50s would be far more worthy of release. Watch a favorite film a second time rather than spend any time watching WHEN GANGLAND STRIKES, a title more interesting than the film.