El imperio del terror

After World War II the ungoing crime in Phenix City, Alabama, encouraged by the money from an Army base just across the river in Georgia, got even worse. Gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, and the like helped an organized crime apparatus in the city. Soon it was too bad and violent to even tolerate anymore. This movie is based on the real story of that fight.

By the standards of the 1950's it was shockingly explicit. Although low-budget, that same small budget helped with the realism requiring location shooting. A very gritty film. Richard Kiley was marvelous as always, and John McIntire stolid.

Why this good movie isn't on video is a real puzzle!

Phenix City, Alabama is a corrupt city of sin bringing lowlifes and soldiers from the neighboring base. Journalist Clete Roberts presents the murder of Albert Patterson presumably by mobster Rhett Tanner who has control of the corrupted government and police. Patterson is the Democrat nominee for Alabama Attorney General tasked with cleaning up the city. The heart of the movie is the amiable respected lawyer Albert Patterson being recruited to run for the post as violence mounts against the good people of the city.

This is a ripped-from-the-headlines story. It starts with a documentary style prologue like a real news report. Although it has documentary style and real life story, many parts of this is fictional. Nevertheless, there is real tension. It starts a little muddled but the tension does rise as the unrelenting violence mount. It has brutality that is beyond cinematic. Even women and children are beaten. The callousness of the corrupt police is just as brutal. It probably needs to give the father son relationship more screen time. It needs to develop the story better. Overall, there are some memorable scenes and it is an unique film.

Whether your a fan of Noir or not, The Phenix City Story remains superior filmaking on all levels regardless of it's budget and lack of special effects. While some may laugh at substituting a doll briefly for a dead child; it's follow up scene continues to have as much shocking impact today as it did upon it's release. To say this is textbook noir filmaking is too small as by all standards The Phenix City Story is the barometer by which crime, realism, fistfights and expose cinema is measured up to.

I'm surprised that more people are not aware of this story which climaxed with no less than the murder of the Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Alabama at the time when said nomination was tantamount to election. That the election of Albert Patterson scared the local criminal syndicate into that kind of move is almost unprecedented. The only other example I can think of something like this occurring was in the early years of the last century when Special Prosecutor Francis J. Heney was shot and wounded while he was investigated the corrupt city machine in San Francisco.

After a brief documentary introduction by CBS news reporter Clete Roberts of actual Phenix City residents, the story begins with the Pattersons, father John McIntire and son Richard Kiley getting reluctantly involved in the fight to clean up their town which is notorious for being a wide open cesspool of vice and corruption. It's pointed out that Phenix City is across from Columbus, Georgia and thirty minutes from Fort Benning. A certain amount of vice and corruption will inevitably settle there in towns that cater to the military and the pleasures the service people will seek off duty.

But Phenix City has gotten way out of hand and it's become a state embarrassment to the people of Alabama. Which is why John McIntire wins that primary leading the way to the unheard of events that followed. Let's just say that what happens here was contemplated, but never done in Chicago during the days of Al Capone.

The cast also includes Kathryn Grant as a young woman working as an informer in one of the clubs, Lenka Patterson as Kiley's loyal, but concerned wife, Edward Andrews and John Larch as brains and muscle behind the syndicate. It also includes James Edwards and Helen Martin whose child is killed when Edwards helps Kiley. With I might add the appropriate feeling one might have for a small black girl in Alabama of the Fifties.

After the action of this film John Patterson took his dad's place as Attorney General and did put an end to the corruption of Phenix City. In 1958 he ran for Governor and won, but contrary to what you might think ran on a strict segregationist platform. His main primary opponent taking the more moderate racial position was George C. Wallace. That never happened again, Wallace saw to that.

And Patterson is still alive and in 2008 was a supporter of Barack Obama for president. Truth can really be stranger than fiction.

The Phenix City Story is a hard hitting, pulling no punches documentary style of a family's fight against corruption. Try to see it when next broadcast.

Before the actual film begins, there is a 13-minute newsreel-style preface hosted by Clete Roberts in which he interviews the actual participants. Interestingly, this was done while the criminal cases discussed in the film were actually still being prosecuted.

This film is a film noir-like film that dramatizes the actual story about the town of Phenix, Alabama--a city run by gamblers and organized crime. It seems that in the 1940s and 50s, all kinds of vice was ignored by cops and city officials who were paid to look the other way. As a result, the soldiers in nearby Fort Benning were routinely cheated and had little, if any recourse. Eventually when local citizens tried to stand up for law and order, the mob resorted to threats and even murder to hold on to their power.

Unlike the typical film of the day, the scenes are quite brutal and violent. The only sour note is the scene of the child being tossed onto the lawn--it's obviously a dummy. There is also a lot of brutal and frank language--some of which might offend you, though it does lend the film an authentic sound. And, despite having mostly smaller caliber actors, they generally did very well. An odd note was having Richard Kiley of all people playing a tough action hero--he just wasn't the sort of guy you'd expect to see acting with his fists. Overall, this is an excellent low-budget film--well worth seeing.

The only question I have about all this is how much is true and how much was changed for the film? According to IMDb the Attorney General was not quite the saint you see in the film, but what about the other facts? I'd sure like to know more.