La cité de la peur

Nice and well paced B thriller , one of those in which you enjoy the way the directors manage to overcome the obvious script and budget limitations to create a personal piece of work , as much as the film itself . It happened in the past and still happens today , what could have turned into a routine movie it's saved by an skilled director who is able to add some spark to what otherwise could be an unremarkable film

Lerner was an absolute expert on this task and It's quite appealing to see this in action and how he manages to create and maintain the tension throughout this film . Literally he builds it out from nothing , no budget and based on a script that you probably came across on a dozen of movies before . All action and trouble comes from an small cylinder allegedly containing heroine worth 1 million USD , which has been stolen by a convict during his prison break . It contains a highly radioactive material instead which causes the alarm and the relentless pursuit of the convict .

Don't get any wrong impression , this is a classic man on the run B thriller , and as such there are some incongruences but mostly it's filmed imaginatively enough to offset the lack of budget and keep the interest It can be compared to what happened with Budd Boetticher , both get some attention when they received some props from Scorssesse himself , so that shed some light to their careers which thus far have been quite neglected by the general public.

In 1958, director Irving Lerner scraped together enough money to make two poverty row features that Columbia released. The first, Murder By Contract, is one of the fine sleeper classics of low-budget film-making, Vince Edwards as a professional hit-man.. By virtue of that film, Andrew Sarris includes a paragraph on Lerner in his seminal book on film directors and auteur theory, American Cinema.

Unfortunately, the second film doesn't measure up to the first. Still, City of Fear has its moments, particularly in the hand-held location shots that lend some much needed pacing. And that's a key problem with this thriller-- it stalls whenever the scenes shift to the offices where Archer and Talbot as police officials add little energy needed to rev up the chase. Thus we get a kind of jerky effect that can't sustain the story momentum.

And a good story premise it is, as the authorities try to track down Edwards before he can loose a big dose of radio-active cobalt on LA. In my book, Edwards was an interesting actor at this early stage, a genuinely commanding presence in a lot of better-than-average B-films. There's also the under-rated Kathie Browne who could be a pixie one minute and a hellion the next (though her part here is small). Steven Ritch too, is an interestingly obscure figure, collaborating on a number of B-level scripts as well as acting in them. And what guy could pass up a chance at the really luscious Patricia Blair-- move over Marilyn!

Anyway, it looks like Sarris was right-- Lerner was a one-shot wonder. Nonetheless, he manages a few neat tricks on display here. All things considered, this minor thriller is still worth a look-see, even 50 years later.

This film begins with a guy breaking out of prison. This man (Vince Edwards) is incredibly ruthless--even for an escaped prisoner. He kills several folks throughout the film--such as a prison guard, an innocent guy in a car and several others. This coldness really was excellent--making the character very compelling.

There is a strange (and VERY unbelievable twist). On his way out of prison, he stole what he THOUGHT was heroin from the infirmary--and he plans on selling it and making a fortune. However, it's actually a super-radioactive substance and if it's released from its steel case, it could kill thousands. Now what would heroin or super-radioactive stuff be doing in a prison in the first place?! I have no idea and it IS a huge plot problem. However, because the rest of the film is so good, it's something you can overlook. Taut--with great music and tense moments. The DVD case says it's film noir--and it is definitely noir-ish. Worth seeing.

Vince Edwards dominates the screen as Vince Ryker, a hard core criminal who makes a violent escape from prison. On his way out, he snatches a container that he mistakenly assumes to contain heroin, which he hopes to sell for a tidy profit. However, it actually contains "Cobalt 60", a dangerous radioactive substance. Cops played by the likes of Lyle Talbot, John Archer, and Kelly Thordsen have to track Ryker down before he can expose the city of L.A. to this substance. As it happens, any person who comes near the container does become seriously sick.

Movies like "City of Fear" may be what they used to call "programmers", but that doesn't mean that they're devoid of entertainment value. This one is sufficiently enjoyable, with right-to- the-point, no frills filmmaking courtesy of director Irving Lerner and company. Tight pacing results in a movie that runs barely an hour and a quarter. Ryker is definitely an anti hero, to be sure, and Edwards portrays him in an appropriately sneering, punkish manner. But the story (co-written by co-star Steven Ritch, who plays Dr. John Wallace) dares to invite a bit of sympathy for Ryker, as he gets progressively more sickly and doesn't understand why. The rest of the cast is likewise solid: stunning Patricia Blair as Rykers' girl June, Joseph Mell as shoe store owner Eddie Crown, Sherwood Price as creepy Pete Hallon, Kathie Browne as salesgirl Jeanne, and Michael Mark in a cameo as a restaurant proprietor. The viewer can also have fun with the catchy, lively score composed by a young Jerry Goldsmith (in his first feature film credit). Cinematographer Lucien Ballard does excellent work as usual.

"City of Fear" might not be anything "great", but it serves its purpose: it's good, straightforward fun, combining police procedural aspects with potential outbreak chills in a diverting way. Recommended to fans of old black & white crime flicks.

Seven out of 10.

Irving Lerner, who worked far less as director than editor and cameraman, has the merit of making the most of a shoestring production with Vince Edwards - never a major star - as the male lead of a cast of otherwise character actors.

Steven Rich and Robert Dilton present a credible script of a prison convict escaping with what he believes to be a cocaine-laden cylinder but which does in fact turn out to be Cobalt radioactive material, which inevitably places in danger the residents of the Californian cities he goes through, mainly Los Angeles.

Vince Edwards convincingly plays Vince Ryker aka Vince Justin as the no-nonsense straight killer who wants a million bucks for the "cocaine" while police are chasing shadows with radiation detectors. Vince, short for Vincent, means victorious, but this triple Vince plays a complete loser.

Though a cheaper production and with production values a few notches beneath 1950's PANIC IN THE STREETS, CITY OF FEAR remains a very watchable film, particularly in these times of Covid and other viruses causing havoc around the globe.

As ever, excellent cinematography by Lucien Ballard. 7/10.