Le roi du racket

Anthony Quinn stars in "The Naked Street," a 1955 film with Farley Granger, Anne Bancroft, and Peter Graves.

Quinn plays a gangster, Phil Regal, whose sister Rosalie (Bancroft) is pregnant and unmarried. Nowadays, this would be a cause for celebration. Back then, it was a scandal. The father is Nicky Bradna (Granger) who is at the moment on death row for killing a liquor store owner while he was stealing his money.

Regal is a wonderful son to his mother (Else Baeck) and a protective brother, but he's basically involved in lots of illegal activities.

Phil wants Nicky to marry Rosalie, so he drops bundles of cash in the right places. Suddenly the witnesses have second thoughts about what they saw and the DA is willing to give him another trial. Soon he's out, married to Rosalie, and driving a truck, which is not what he wanted to do. But big brother insisted.

It doesn't take Nicky long to start acting up - he and Rosalie suffer a tragedy, he doesn't like his job, and Regal wants him out of the way.

Pretty good noir, and Anthony Quinn does a wonderful job showing us the human being beneath the tough gangster. Anne Bancroft is very young, but excellent in her part, and Farley Granger does well as the loser husband.

"The Naked Street" is a derivative story, so it's not particularly special, but it is worth a look.

Enjoyed this film from the 1950's with Anthony Quinn playing the role as Phil Regal, mobster in a section of New York City. Nicky Bradna, (Farley Granger) was a young guy trying to go straight after getting out of prison and his girl friend is Rosalie Regalzyk, (Anne Bancroft. Rosalie just so happens to be the sister to Phil and so he managed to get Nicky out of jail. There is a horrible event which happens to Nicky and Rosalie Bradna, and Nick goes wild and gets himself deep into the world of crime which takes the entire film in a different direction. Anthony Quinn put his heart and soul into this role as being a mean and cruel and hateful mobster. If you like Anthony Quinn, don't miss this film, you will greatly enjoy viewing it.

There are some Fight Scenes that Lend a bit of Roughness to the Proceedings and a few Scenes that have an Edge, but this is another Example of just how the Fifties Filtered and Weakened Film-Noir.

Elements Remain from the Golden Age of the Genre but its Decline is Evident as Things became Glossy, Obvious, and Preachy. One Thing this one does Bring to the Table is the Out of Wedlock Pregnancy that is Dealt with Head-On.

However, the Voice Over Narration No Longer is Ominous or Layered with Defeatism. Now it is just Matter of Fact Police Procedural or in this Film a Journalist just Stating the Facts.

Some Strong Acting is Evident from Anthony Quinn and Anne Bancroft with some Good Turns by Supporting Players, but Peter Graves and Farley Granger seem Miscast. Overall, Worth a Watch to See the Decline of Film-Noir and for an Interesting but mostly Implausible Story about the Underworld.

This film is a film noir wannabe and just doesn't quite make it. The plot, a mobster (Quinn) who holds his family as a icon of decency, discovers his sister (Bancroft) is "jammed up" by a local neighborhood playboy (Granger) who is on death row for murder. Bringing his influence to bear, the gangster gets the playboy a new trail and his freedom so he can marry his sister. But, the playboy can't stand it and gets caught by the hood stepping out on his wife. So, the gangster sets his roving brother-in-law up to be framed for murder. But, as his playboy son-in-law tells him, "I didn't kill this guy but I did kill the first one..." and the cops use him to chase the hood to his death while his mother is bringing him a bottle of seltzer water to have with his weekly dinner with her.

Film buffs will enjoy seeing the younger Quinn in scowling action as well as Granger and Bancroft in their younger days. The acting is solid, the storyline somewhat pedestrian and there's no video or DVD. You'll have to catch on the late show.

The acting makes the movie, especially gang boss Regal (Quinn) and his naive sister Rosalie (Bancroft). Regal may be a ruthless racketeer outside his family, but inside, he's a protective pussycat. That is, until cheap Lothario Bradna (Granger) first knocks-up Rosalie and then philanders after Regal forces him to marry her. And that's after Regal gets him off a murder-one rap so the irresponsible kid can do the right thing. Now, feeling betrayed, Regal's really angry, so we know Bradna's in for even worse trouble.

The movie's got some twists and turns, not all being very plausible. But that's okay because Quinn delivers a scary and riveting performance. The actor's just back from Italy where he starred in the powerful classic La Strada (1954). So maybe he was trying to show Hollywood a thing or two since he delivers a lot more than the role requires. Then there's Bancroft, already a magnetic personality, and on her way to an Oscar-studded career. Looks to me like the producers spent their money on the cast and not on the visuals that are pretty bland and bare-bones. But then the supporting cast is full of familiar faces, especially up-and-comers like Van Cleef and Graves, along with great vets like Bissell and Flavin.

Five-years earlier and I expect the film would have been straight noir, without the moralizing voice-over. But this is the McCarthy Cold War period, so there can't be any lingering ambiguity. Still, it's a fairly gritty little film with a compelling central performance that deserves better than near- total Hollywood obscurity, despite the titillating title.