Der Gangsterkönig von New York

I came to own and watch this film because the score was written by musician and inventor Raymond Scott. The acting is very wooden. but fans of Steve McQueen might get a kick out of seeing him in an early role, not to mention the Buddy Holly glasses!

I watched this to see John Drew Barrymore, whom I had never seen as an actor. The film also stars Steve McQueen, Lita Milan, and Robert Bray.

The premise is somewhat iffy. An orphan, Frankie Kane, raised in a Catholic orphanage, is found to be Jewish, so he has to be sent somewhere else. Someone asked on IMDb if this was true about the Catholic church. I have no idea. It seems to me if they could make someone a Christian, they would.

Okay, that aside, Frankie has Jewish friends, Martin Cabell (McQueen) and his sister Julie. Frankie protected Martin from some antiSemite teens, and Martin wants Frankie to teach him how to fight. Frankie also falls for Julie.

With the threat of being sent away, Frankie leaves town. He has had some contact with a gangster, Silk Fennell (Bray) before leaving. When he returns to town a hopeless bum seven years later, Bray brings him into the business. Bray is also by then involved with Julie, and she's singing in a nightclub.

Martin by now is a special prosecutor who is supposed to bring down the mob, and he wants Frankie to turn himself in. Problems ensue.

I think Frankie could have run away for another reason besides being Jewish - and I don't understand making the Cabells Jewish. It just made no sense to have that part of the story.

John Drew Barrymore, Drew's dad, John's son, was a good-looking man who reminded me of the actor Mark Goddard. He's pretty good in this. Unfortunately, he came to a bad end, and, thanks to him, his father came to a worse one.

Barrymore Sr. Had wanted to be cremated but at that time, Catholics couldn't be cremated. That law changed in 1963. Long story short, John Drew and a relative dug up Barrymore's body - after 38 years - and the leakage of body fluids nearly killed both of them. The fluids had formed a glue and attached it to the floor of the crypt, making it difficult to move, and the fluids continued leaking. John insisted on looking inside before his father was cremated and was completely freaked out.

Steve McQueen give an authoritative performance. R. G. Armstrong, a familiar face, is also in the film.

Not good - but it was written by Harold Robbins, and had I known that, I would have skipped it.

I found "Never Love a Stranger" on YouTube and decided to watch it as it is the first credited movie appearance by Steve McQueen. He doesn't star in the film, but he is an important character in the story.

When the movie begins, a woman dies in a rooming house...leaving a brand new baby behind. With no other options, the boy is sent to be raised in a Catholic orphanage. While he's there, Frankie (John Drew Barrymore) makes friends with a Jewish teen, Marty (McQueen), and his family. He also makes friends with the local mob boss...a guy who likes what he sees in Frankie.

Some time later, the folks at the orphanage discover that Frankie's dead mother was Jewish...and they make arrangements to send him to a Jewish orphanage. Frankie doesn't want to go and disappears for seven years.

In the interim, Marty goes to law school and obtains a job with the District Attorney's office. When Frankie returns, he goes back into business with the mob boss...and soon is able to wrangle his way to the top of the mob empire! As a result, Marty is given a new job by the DA....to get Frankie and make sure he goes to prison! This is made all the tougher as they were friends AND Marty's sister, Julie, is in love with Frankie. What's next? See the film.

While this is generally a very good film, I think all the narration could have been removed and the film could have been a bit better. It's just too schmaltzy and unnecessary. Apart from that, it was an entertaining crime film....not noir, as it lacked the camerawork, glib dialog and violence you'd expect in noir.

When John Drew Barrymore was making films in the 50s he opted for a more modern style than his father John Barrymore ever tried. The elder Barrymore's classical style of acting was quite passé and would never have been accepted. Sad to say that young Barrymore tried and failed to be a James Dean type rebel. For Never Love A Stranger that's especially interesting because supporting Barrymore was an actor who would become the ideal image of cool.

With elements taken from Manhattan Melodrama and Little Caesar, Never Love A Stranger is an old fashioned type film that probably was an anachronism in the 50s let alone now. Young Barrymore plays a slum kid who suffers an identity crisis when he discovers his Jewish roots after having been raised in a Catholic orphanage.

He goes away but comes back one mean and tough punk who becomes kingpin of the rackets, taking over from Robert Bray who gave him his start. And as it turns out his childhood friend, Steve McQueen becomes the special prosecutor with the mission of bringing Barrymore down.

Steve McQueen might have made this film slightly better had he been cast in the lead. But frankly this film was a turgid mess and I doubt that would have helped.

"Never Love A Stranger" was taken from an early Harold Robbins book and gave Steve McQueen his first significant role in films. Unfortunately, it is sub-standard in all respects and I would only recommend it to fanatic McQueen fans intent on seeing any and all of his film appearances. The budget must have been minuscule, since the production looks like it would have been cheap even for 50's television. The lighting, sets, and sound are all inferior. The writing is laughably bad and the direction has no sense of pace and certainly no dramatic depth. The lead is John Drew Barrymore, son of the Great Profile and father of Drew. He's not awful, and does what he can with the role, but he and all the other actors are weighed down by the dreadful script and direction. McQueen does not do much better. He is miscast, playing a nice Jewish boy...yes, Steve McQueen plays a nice Jewish boy, you read that right. Not only that, but he begins the film having to be taught how to box and defend himself by Barrymore. Then he grows up to be the noble, honorable district attorney out to get his gangster childhood friend. More astute future casting directors would eventually discover that McQueen's true forte was as the tough rebel and loner, not the goody two-shoes. Moreover, he is given no chance to shine, no scenes to dominate. Its all Barrymore's picture and McQueen is strictly there in support. Lita Milan is also in the picture as Barrymore's girl, and she's awful too.