The Hoodlum

Never viewed this 1951 film starring Lawrence Tierney,(Vincent Lubeck) who is up for parole from prison, however, the warden does not want to release him because he almost knows he is evil through and through. Mrs. Lubeck,(Lisa Golm) walks into the parole board meeting and pleads for her sons release and it is finally granted. Vincent spent five years in prison and is worse than when he went into the prison. Johnny Lubeck, (Edward Tierney) greets his brother back and offers him a job at his gas station to work and get himself on the right side of the law. It is not long before Vincent steals his brothers girl friend and then decides to pull off a big job across the street from his brothers gas station. If you viewed the film "Dillinger" in 1945, Tierney plays almost the same role with plenty of hate for everybody and a mean look on his face all the time. In this film, Lawrence Tierneys brother, Edward Tierney gave a great supporting role. Lisa Golm, (Mrs. Lubeck) gave a great portrayal of Vincent Lubeck's mother and acted just like a loving mother would towards her wayward son. Enjoy

Got a chance to watch this little noir/crime film recently and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. It's a quick movie that clocks in at about 61 and a half minutes and there is no denying that it was a very low budget programmer but it was quickly paced and had some nice touches. Lawrence Tierney is at his nastiest as lifelong criminal Vincent Lubeck. The film opens with Tierney in a car being held at gunpoint by his brother(real life brother Edward Tierney) Johnny and then goes back in time to take us through what lead up to this point. We get a neat narrated, documentary style montage about Vincent's life of crime to start things off. Nice noir touches along the way as shadows abound and for the most part, the performances are very good. Several scenes in the film sort of reminded me of the vastly superior WHITE HEAT. Several things kind of startled me from a film made in 1951 like rape, suicide and the word "pregnant"! All in all, a pretty entertaining little film and a nice way to kill an hour of your time.

... because TIerney was such a seemingly tortured soul and his own worst enemy that he really seemed to understand the most memorable characters that he played. His drunken brawling destroyed his movie career in less than ten years. Once he called the police and told them there was a fight in a bar and they needed to come break it up. There wasn't, Tierney just wanted some fist to cuffs with some cops. In the 1970s his girlfriend died from a fall from a high rise window. Tierney was there and told the police that as he had entered the apartment she had just jumped out of the window, seemingly for no reason. Charges were never filed. But I digress.

The point is that here Tierney plays the brooding violent seemingly tormented hoodlum Vincent Lubeck, into far more nefarious stuff than Tierney ever was, but Tierney has the titular character's mood and mentality down pat. VInce is somewhat enigmatic with few words. It is with posture and factial expressions that you come to know this character.

The first part of the film is almost in documentary style. It talks about Vincent's ride through the revolving door of the criminal justice system with his crimes elevating in gravity with his age. Finally at age 25 he is sentenced to 5-10 in the pen for armed robbery. At his parole hearing after 5 of those 10 years, the parole board can't think of why they should loose this guy on the public. But then his gray haired mama enters and after she slings enough chicken soup, cliches, and mixed metaphors at the board she apparently convinces (confuses???) the board into letting Vince go.

But you might as well meet the new VInce, same as the old Vince. He feels the world owes him something because of his impoverished upbringing, living next to the city dump as a kid. But his little brother (and this actually IS Tierney's little brother folks) doesn't seem to have any of Vince's hardness, is enterprising, and has opened a gas station and gives Vince a job, which he needs to stay out on parole.

But Vince is busy eyeing the things he can't have and that he wants. One is his kid brother's fiancee, Rosa. The other is the contents of the bank across from the gas station where he works. And this is where he plans a rather intricate bank hold-up. This is where low budget Eagle-Lion excelled, what they couldn't afford in really big name stars - TIerney is the only one in this film - they spent on rather clever plots.

Tierney gets to show a bit of range here. He even shows fear and regret, although in small doses. And the end of the film is quite ironic. I would recommend this little film.

This is typical but quite entertaining B movie fare. Well, not completely typical because the main character of such fare is generally more sympathetic than Lawrence Tierney is here. He's a guy you love to hate as he gets paroled thanks to his sweet and loving mother and then proceeds to be a total heel, raping and impregnating his sister-in-law, robbing a bank and just an overall not-nice guy. He doesn't even evoke sympathy at his dying mother's bedside and that's one of the perverse charms of the film. The ending in a dump is quite satisfying and prompts a feeling of good riddance to bad rubbish. This is a typically short little B film, cheaply made, ludicrous at times, but fun to watch and one which will be appreciated by fans of 40's and 50's 2nd features.

This is a very underrated B film noir, with Lawrence Tierney at his toughest. If you liked Tierney in Born to Kill, you'll like him here as well. The plot is a common one, but rarely will you see such a vicious character in a 1951 film. There's even a real "dirty word" used in this film (by 1950s standards): "pregnant"! Tierney's performance is not to be missed. He plays a character here with no redeeming qualities (unless you call using his mother a "redeeming" quality), & no remorse. The details of his character's development are fairly well explained; enough of his background is given to understand why he turned out the way he did. For film noir fans, you'll like the darkness of the film, shadows abound, & there's a short narration at the beginning. Lisa Golm (who plays Tierney's mother) also gives an outstanding performance (a little too dramatic at times, but I know quite a few people who act like that in real life); the fact that she strongly reminds me of my grandmother (& was coincidentally born only 9 days after my grandmother) helped me to enjoy this film even more. The most thought provoking aspect of the film is the question of how two brothers who were raised together could grow up to be so different. Tierney's real life brother plays his brother in this film (but he's probably the weakest actor here). I rate it 9/10, but subtract a point if Lisa Golm doesn't remind you of your grandmother!