Der Gangsterkönig von New York

"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.

Co.produced from his first novel by Harold Robbins, plainly patterned after 'The Public Enemy' and 'Angels with Dirty Faces' and ambitious enough to hire top cameraman Lee Garmes and commission a romantic musical score from Raymond Scott (with a moralising commentary of the sort later parodied by Russ Meyer). It's failure obviously decided Robbins to stick thereafter to glossy trash (a decision that swiftly made his fortune).

As a leading man John Drew Barrymore as a Jewish gangster proves a chip off the old block, while fourth-billed Steve McQueen as a Jewish lawyer (described by the late David Shipman as resembling "a Botticelli angel crossed with a chimp") already demonstrates the star quality that soon took him to the top and kept him there until his untimely death.

As Barrymore's mother Dolores Vitina is unrecognisable as the sexy green alien (billed as 'Vitina Marcus') she later played in 'Lost in Space', while R.G.Armstrong is allowed more nuance than one initially anticipates as a hired gun.

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.

The film while not exactly a clunker could have been a lot better.

it has that late 50's b/w gangster feel to it like "Studs Lonigan" a couple of years later. A young Steve McQueen cast as a Jewish kid who becomes an attorney does what he can in a supporting role. The person who did have me riveted throughout was John Drew Barrymore who is pretty good in this although his character gets more absurd as the film goes on. Barrymore was a striking looking actor & had talent enough to have a much better career than he actually ended up having.

His lifestyle choices ruined all that, Lita Milan who plays Barymore's girlfriend retired from films all together shortly after & married the Prime minister of the Dominican Republic or something.

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!