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Novice cop George Montgomery starts his beat on a street uptown. Bar owner Nehemiah Persoff controls the neighborhood of drunks and delinquents. He and Montgomery tangle, and when Geraldine Brooks jumps off the ledge of her apartment while Montgomery and her ex-husband are present, Montgomery is suspended.

It's a fast-paced little programmer, and Persoff is terrific as the guy who came out of the gutter and didn't travel far. It's well produced on a cheap budget, but like most of Montgomery's vehicles in this period, it was designed to make a profit without doing much for anyone's career.

Director William Berke was referred to as "The King of the B's" for his prolific output of low-budget movies. In one of his last films, Street Of Sinners, he worked with equally prolific actors George Montgomery, Nehemiah Persoff and Geraldine Brooks.

Montgomery is a by-the-book cop who is working a new beat. Persoff is the proprietor of a lounge that serves drinks to minors, handles illegal bets and engages in sex trafficking. Brooks, convincingly, plays one of the victims to Persoff's devilish ways.

Montgomery's cop is given the lone hero treatment, but Persoff has all the contacts downtown that prevent him from being brought to justice.

The film moves briskly through its plot points and even pays attention to character development.

It all feels too remedial, but if you're a lover of 50s crime films you'll find a certain lure to the movie particularly because of the performances by the leads.

It's the first day for New York city beat cop John Dean (George Montgomery). He's taking over from a retiring veteran who allowed for a loose interpretation of the law. John is the opposite and he intends to clean up. Leon owns the local bar, owns the police, and runs the wild streets. Nancy is the underaged wild girl working in the bar. Terry is the local drunk who often takes off her clothes in the street.

It's a police melodrama. It's a 50's fantasy street life. There is an element of selling to middle America. There is over-acting here and characters worthy of pulpy crime comics. It's fun in an enjoyable B-movie way. The actors are pretty good despite the melodramatic material. The characters may be one-dimensional but compelling enough to be rooting interest.

A cop on the beat, looking after the goings on for a street assigned to him, is a rather quaint notion, but given life by straight-shooter George Montgomery in this dated but entertaining B-movie.

It's loaded with stereotypes and cliche plot twists, but the cast does a fine job making it eminently watchable. Nehemiah Persoff is terrific as a truly good bad guy -in fact, his self-serving statements on how he holds the street together and is worthy of running things is far more convincing than George's bull-in-a-china-shop approach as an unbending, old-hat cop who insists on playing everything by the book.

It's a revelation to see young Geraldine Brooks as a sexy drunk with the proverbial heart of gold. As the young teen lead Marilee Earle is a striking and forceful beautiful brunette -I was surprised to see that her career went nowhere in a hurry.

If you can get past the stereotyping, clichés, cheesy dialogue, and the fiery jazz soundtrack with screeching brass, you will probably enjoy this as a solid B movie. It started out typical, but it progressed into a formidable sociological statement. It is entertaining!

It's clear the entire cast wanted this project to succeed. For that reason, I categorize this as an ensemble. Some actors shine; some do not. But my gut instinct tells me the entire crew was so happy to be working that they decided to give it their all. And it shows.

I rate this film a 7 because of the production, which includes the director. It's typical Hollywood, but that's what makes it fun. Not for those who can't handle dated films.

My god, this month's TCM Spotlight on 50s teen pics is agonizingly endless! Just one clunkily written, crappily acted, and statically directed movie after another. Oh well, at least there's a good, jazzy score for this one. PS...George Montgomery looks at least twenty years too old to play a rookie cop fresh outa the academy (guess Marty Milner wasn't available).

Inner-City Youths Boxed in to a Few Streets with 1 Beat-Cop to Deal With, When the Current "Look-the-Other-Way" Type Retires...

Hard-Nosed, By-the-Rules "Rookie" George Montgomery Takes Over and Things Get Out of Hand Fast.

Gritty Stuff on "Sinner-Street" with Seemingly "No-Way-Out", especially when the Local Bar-Hang-Out is Pushing Drinks on Minors and then Pushing the Girls "Down-Town" for "Modeling" Jobs (yea sure).

Montgomery is a One-Man Reformer Bucking the Locals with the "Old-Man' who runs the Bar, the Girls, and Everything Else with Tentacles Everywhere to Keep Things Running "Above the Law".

Phillip Yordan Adds some Character Development, and these are a Bunch of "Loser" Characters...

One Young Alcoholic Divorcee is so "Out-of-It" She is Cracked Wide-Open, Burns a Steak and Biscuits and Takes a Dive Off Her Tenement Building Ledge.

One Young Lady Goes from a Bar-Fly Flirting with the "Boss" (His Favorite), Sent-Packing "Downtown" in a Heartbeat.

Some Over-Acting and the Confines of the Limitations of "Sinner Street" Hold the Thing Back from any Broad Appeal or Significance,

but the Low-Budget Cast, some Taut Dialog, and Piled on Melodrama Help Make it More than it Should Be, and is...

Worth a Watch.

As the '50's kicked off for the second half and film noir's sell by date drew ominously nearer, the genre underwent a sea change perpetuated by the explosion of rock'n'roll, coupled with movies like The Wild Ones and Rebel Without a Cause. Move aside crime syndicates, love triangles and grizzled gangsters, the youth culture was here to stay. The Acme Delivery Company, magically transformed to The Acne Delivery Company and the focus firmly fixed on the juvenile delinquent.

Retiring officer Gus, has ruled the unruly with a softly softly, anything for a quiet life strategy. His replacement, rookie George Montgomery adopts the opposite approach. The "ahm gonna clean up this town" mantra has fuelled numerous movies, but if Montgomery intends to throw the book at every miscreant, it's to be hoped that there's a big library situated nearby! Ultimately, his unremittingly confrontational attitude towards both teenagers and local MR. BIG, (Nehemiah Persoff) begins to rankle and grow tiresome. Add on a bewildering soundtrack which veers from modern jazz to a solitary haunting harmonica at a heartbeat and Street of Sinners is a seriously oddball concoction.

Montgomery is at least appreciated by the females on the block and accepts a dinner invitation from inebriated Geraldine Brooks, who claims to have had just a pre-meal cocktail, ...yeah, a quart of port and a bin of gin! Her steak would make a good door stop, whilst her homemade biscuits were clearly baked to an ancient recipe first used by Alfred the Great. As the evening unravels, she breaks down and sobs, "I can change, I can change." With most of the dinner spilt down his uniform, it's Montgomery who needs to change. When this pantomime scenario suddenly takes a tragic turn, the movie becomes more purposeful, leading towards an unexpectedly tense finale.

The quickening pace of the final stage cannot mask the movie's legion of shortcomings -woeful acting, rudimentary dialogue and shallow characters. That such a seismic societal shift should be given its voice in a picture so flaccid, feeble and dispensable, a work of such little substance, is disheartening to say the least....daddy-o.

Officer Dean (George Montgomery) is taking over the beat, and he's not making any friends on his very first day. The thugs are testing him, to see what they can get away with. Leon (Nehemiah Persoff) is the antagonist, the "business man", who really does run a legit business. But he also runs a few businesses that aren't so clean, even selling booze to under age kids. Dean is determined to shut him down and clean up the street. It comes across as a documentary, like dragnet, but it's a little too on the nose. Everything is overdone. The kids overact, the punk kids are dressed a little too clean as they break the law. Dean doesn't even make an effort to get along with the kids from the very first day. And it all goes exactly as expected. There's going to be big showdown at some point. It's just fair to middlin. Montgomery had a long successful career, acting and even directed a few things. Since Persoff had so many early roles in tv, he managed to skip many of the "uncredited" roles that actors get as they claw their way to the lead. He was frequently the second banana, playing parts on both sidess of the law. Persoff himself has an interesting story on wikipedia. Story by Philip Yordan. Directed by Bill Berke. No oscars, but was successful in film and tv series. Died young at 54. This one was made in the late 1950s, when all the studios were making films on the rough, gritty, city life.

John (George Montgomery) is a rookie cop about to start his first beat. However, he is quite naive and knows little about the neighborhood and the hood who runs it. Leon (Nehemiah Persoff) is a small-time mobster who has connections in City Hall....and for years, folks have ignored Leon. But while at first Leon seems like a minor crook who isn't doing much harm, his influence goes far beyond just serving liquor to underage kids in his bar. Can John manage to stand up to Leon and both keep his job AND not get his head blown off as well? And, can John effect change when his fellow officers don't seem to care?

Despite the film initially seeming pretty cheesy and stiff, the film improves as you watch. It soon becomes tense and exciting....and leads to a dandy finale. Well made and very well written.

By the way, believe it or not, Persoff turns 102 this August. Good luck to a fine, fine actor....and he sure plays an excellent villain!

I saw this film in a late night slot many years ago on BBC television and it left a lasting impression. It was obviously made on a very tight budget, with next to no location shooting, but included a very telling performance from George Montgomery, one of his best in my opinion. Reading Ms Lott's account/synopsis, however, has thrown me a bit, as it's not how I remember the film. However, I must stress it was a long time ago when I viewed it! The action was, as I recall, almost all set during the night hours when policeman Montgomery walked his beat, the so called Street Of Sinners. Persoff was the local badman at the heart of the troubled area. George was on friendly terms with the ladies of the night, whilst also striving to reform the local youngsters.I remember one great scene where our hero walked into a bar and slammed his night stick baton on the bar and closed down the joint. Sadly, this underrated little picture has never been shown again on UK television. I shall continue to hope that it will one day be released on DVD.

This camp classic deserves more recognition. Rookie cops tries to get the underbelly of society to play by the rules. They resist. "Get your ticket writing fingahs offa me!" The homeliest leading lady in movie history and Geraldine Brooks had come a long way down from her Warner Bros. Starlet days a few years ago.

Law abiding citizens today will yearn for tame 1950s criminalovs. I love sanitized 1950s Hollywood. The hookers wear pearls.

George Montgomery plays the cop who thinks he will have time to learn his job, while his predecessor knows he is too late for it already. He has to grapple with a nasty web of villainy which gradually grows more ominous and threatens to engulf him. Nehemiah Persoff plays a role fit for Edward G. Robinson as the boss of the street selling liquor to minors and delivering young beautiful girls to his bosses downtown for further treatment. Naturally he and the young police officer develop a conflict constantly growing more serious, until guns start to circulate between hands. When one of the delinquents enter a garage smiling with a lovely girl and he comes out alone with the smile gone the alarm is definite. There are two lovely young girls going missing here, one by accidental suicide while being drunk, and the other just disappearing, while there is another death involved, a real suicide, a young man seemingly of unlucky love, but the spider in the web is undeniable. It's a great thriller on a small scale, gradually building up to shocking climaxes, well written, well acted, with terrific music, so it certainly deserves attention.