The Hoodlum

The Hoodlum (1951)

In this sequel to Nosseck's remarkable Dillinger (1945), real life tough guy Lawrence Tierney reprises his role of a scowling, unredeemable thug (he also appeared in the same director's equally hardboiled Kill or Be Killed (1950). The result is another tight and tough little film, if not quite on the same level. The main reason for this is a plot that's less convincing than Yordan's was back in 1945 when the real Dillinger's famously dramatic life provided excellent inspiration. Yordan, who went on to script such projects as El Cid, was plainly more of an artist than Neumann and Tanchuk, providing the story here. Events are more predictable – the anti-hero is even provided with a sentimental death bed scene to weep his belated crocodile tears. Fortunately Tierney plays this final pay off with little sentimentality, even hiding his face rather than letting the audience see him ‘weaken'. As Lubeck, the hoodlum just out from jail finding life too dull working in his brother's pump station, Tierney is once again excellent, up to and including the inevitable denouement. His determined unrepentance creates a thrusting charisma which both Rosa (his brother's girl, whom he briefly seduces, impregnates and discards), the bank manager's secretary and the audience find hard to ignore. As an actor Tierney can manage a cruel arrogance even when working a petrol pump, while Lubeck's cynical disassocation from his family makes him seem a very modern.

Interestingly, almost half the running time of the film has elapsed before he commits his first crime, or even fires a shot. For the rest of the time the hoodlum is brooding, contemplating the raw deal he has been handed, feeling as imprisoned by his humdrum job as no doubt millions of others did (and do) at the time. The difference is that he wants to reach for his big break in dramatic and violent fashion as he has it `all figured out now'. Its the heist he has planned, with the desperate aftermath, occupies the remainder of the film.

Ironically it is Lubeck's mother whose tears soften the heat of his parole board, thereby releasing her vicious son back into circulation. By the end, along with society, she inevitably regrets this decision, but her role in obtaining his release means that, in some respect at least, she is responsible for the anti-social acts he performs. In this light her final scene can be seen as much an act of necessary repentence as it is her reconciliation with reality.

The Hoodlum also boasts a minor first in that Tierney's real life brother Edward appears on screen for the first time, playing Vince's nice-but-dull brother. Despite all his good intentions, he ends up holding a gun on his sibling before literally driving him to his death - an event the significance of which frames the main action of the film in flashback, a typical noir conceit. Edward has little of Lawrence's screen presence, although here the novelty of the casting (which recalls the on-screen partnership of the Mitchum brothers in the cult film Thunder Road (1958 )) makes up for some his gaucheness.

Nosseck's muscular, ever hard to see films are overdue for reassessment. His three with Tierney are generally excellent, although hampered by constraints of budget and length. Also recommended is his British black out thriller The Brighton Strangler, more atmospheric than one might expect, and directed in the same vintage year as Dillinger.

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.

Although his warden considers him an unrepentant hoodlum, bank robber Lawrence Tierney (as Vincent "Vince" Lubeck) is granted parole. This is largely due to Mr. Tierney's pleading mother Lisa Golm (as Mama Lubeck). Lawrence moves home with the family and begins working for younger brother Edward Tierney (as Johnny Lubeck) at his auto service station. Lawrence proves to be a terrible worker and drives customers away from the gas station, which happens to be across the street from a bank. He meets bank secretary Marjorie Riordan (as Eileen) and gathers information for a planned robbery. Lawrence also assaults Edward's girlfriend Allene Roberts (as Rosa Czermak) with a kiss, which succeeds in getting her to copulate in that old "you know you want it" way...

Leading man Lawrence Tierney scowls through his part. His best scenes occur near the end, especially with mother Golm. Though theatrical, Golm performs most passionately for director Max Nosseck. Edward Tierney is Lawrence's real-life brother and is okay his first featured role. They are interesting in the bracketing car scene which opens the story with flashbacks. While Ms. Roberts is a pushover, a couple of other women assert themselves. All things considered, the best part of this unassuming crime drama is the story/screenplay, well-written by Sam Neuman and Nat Tanchuck. They make the characters more interesting than they are played – and "the city dump" is an artfully used metaphor. The main caper, involving the bank and a nearby mortuary, is nicely staged.

****** The Hoodlum (7/5/51) Max Nosseck ~ Lawrence Tierney, Edward Tierney, Lisa Golm, Allene Roberts

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.

... 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.