Pier 23

I like Edward Brophy. He was best playing a mug with a twinkle in his eye. But he is miscast here as the "intellectual who likes the sauce". He just can't make it work. He sounds cardboard trying to play the professor. Likewise, I enjoy Hugh Beaumont. To me Beaumont was similar to Alan Ladd, great in the right role, but with a rather cold screen persona.

Let's be honest, these were made on the cheap and relied heavily on the stars to bring life to very average scenarios. Personally, I think the Brophy/Beaumont team fails. I like them both, but it doesn't work here. Compared with the TV detectives series of the era the Dennis O'Brien mysteries are fine, but if you are looking for a lost gem from the detective genre you won't find it here.

Dennis O'Brien (Hugh Beaumont) is a private detective in San Francisco. A priest comes to him with a strange request...to meet a man who will be escaping from Alcatraz Federal Prison and convince him NOT to commit murder! Apparently, the priest heard this plan during a confession and cannot tell the police. Unfortunately, the plan goes completely haywire...folks die and the story gets a bit convoluted.

The plot is a bit tough to follow unless you pay close attention. However, I still recommend you see it because this B-noir picture has great style and it's nice to see the Beaver's dad being a glib toughie. It's also unusual and interesting to see Eddie Brophy playing so far against type. Instead of the usual somewhat dimwitted mob-type, here he's an erudite alcoholic professor...with a cool patrician accent! Well worth seeing.

Hugh Beaumont starred as private detective Denny O'Brien in three short features in 1951: "Pier 23", "Roaring City", and "Danger Zone". The three were all set in San Francisco, ran about 60 minutes, and had two plot lines, thus could be used for television episodes.

Beaumont had had a fairly long career in B detective movies when he made these films, and was certainly at ease in front of the camera. The plots were all pretty much the same: 1. O'Brien would be called upon to do an unusual job (placing a bet on a fixed boxing match, bidding on a mysterious package at an auction, etc.); 2. Some tough guys would rough up O'Brien and he would awaken next to a dead body; 3. SFPD inspector Bruger (Richard Travis) would suddenly appear and grimly accuse O'Brien of murder; 4. O'Brien would have to somehow exonerate himself. Along the way O'Brien was assisted by his drunken roommate Professor Shicker (Edward Brophy) and would tangle with snarling gangsters and hard-boiled "dames".

The supporting casts were mostly unknowns, although sharp viewers will spot Joy Lansing, Mike Mazurki, Ann Savage, Tom Neal, Raymond Greenleaf, Ralph Sanford, and others. The acting was typical of the era, with the smart, fast-talking private eye, cynical cops, and tough blondes. The primary appeal of these films is of course the presence of Hugh Beaumont, who would become legendary as the benevolent dad Ward Cleaver six years later. Brophy's never-ending eloquent speeches get a little irritating at times, and the presence of Richard Monahan (from the turkey "Untamed Women" a few years later) as a bartender is a plus.

None of the Denny O'Brien films is bad, it's just that they're ordinary. I've watched all three and they are predictable and typical of the era, but they're undemanding and fairly entertaining. You may want to watch to see the Beav's dad before he became a sitcom legend.

Hugh Beaumont is adequate here as private investigator "O'Brien" in this really rather procedural crime drama. Indeed, it comes across as two separate episodes rather clunky joined together. What does link the themes though, is that he always seems to find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and usually ends up trying to convince folks that he isn't the criminal that all fingers seem to want to point to. This rather dry feature sees him embroiled in a wrestling cover-up for a murder which is completely devoid of jeopardy because that story concludes with half an hour to go! The next sequence sees him trying to persuade a convicted felon not to try to escape from Alcatraz, only to - yet again - get all caught up in some shenanigans that could see him in the "chair". What really doesn't help is the annoying narration - peppered with what they must have hoped were witticisms - that describe what he is about to do before he does it. It is almost as if it were made by a production team with a radio background less used to the audience being able to see what action (activity may be better) is actually going on. Kills an hour, but then so does the hoovering.

Director William Berke - an illustrious unknown to ignorant me - does a good job of keeping this B picture ticking and riveting. To that end, he is ably assisted by Hugh Beaumont, who posts perhaps his finest performance ever.

Beaumont plays a laidback private detective off the Embarcadero in San Francisco, and initially he meets two suspicious sisters, but later he finds out that the real femme fatale is another one, who hangs about with the nefarious Mamakos, alias Garrison, and has in fact taken out a marriage license without anyone - even her hubby! - knowing.

Good and unusually long supporting role for Edward Brophy as the ever philosophizing varsity prof who doubles up as snitch for Beaumont.

The great lumbering Mazurki puts in an appearance on the ring and at Pier 23, the latter proving decisive for the denouement.

Very good cinematography and sharp dialogue for a B pic. 7/10.