Hoodlum Empire

Hoodlum Empire was Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures way of cashing in on the Senate Rackets hearings that were chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver. A forgotten figure today, Kefauver almost rode the publicity of those hearings all the way to the White House.

Yates put together a competent company of players to tell this story. I wish he'd given them a better story. John Russell is the nephew of a Lucky Luciano type mob boss played by Luther Adler who has an attack of conscience and gives up his rackets inheritance for a gas station in some town in middle America. Of course other associates of Adler's like Forrest Tucker aren't so keen on Russell just walking away. He knows too much.

As Hollywood coincidence would have it, Russell's company commander from World War II rises to the US Senate and he's the Kefauver figure. Crusading, crimefighting Senator Brian Donlevy has a subpoena out for the big crime bosses and Russell's on his witness list. So is Tucker, Adler, and so is Claire Trevor. One of the highlights of the Rackets hearings was the appearance of Bugsy Siegel's gal pal Virginia Hill and Trevor's character is modeled on her. Claire Trevor is as usual, the moll with the heart of gold. Russell's dumped her for a war bride from France played by Yates's wife Vera Hruba Ralston. She was queen of the Republic lot, like Norma Shearer was at MGM when she was married to Irving Thalberg. Of course Republic wasn't exactly MGM and Ralston didn't have quite the talent of Norma Shearer.

So Trevor's got her own agenda and its mixed in with this stew of a story which I will not further elaborate on. She and Adler are the standouts here if one can stand out in this. Adler was one of the best character actors in Hollywood at that time. He was usually a villain and played all kinds of ethnic types. He did a much better gangster portrayal later on in The Brotherhood.

Today's audiences won't find this appealing, especially if they don't know who Estes Kefauver was.

Loosely based on the Kefauver hearings investigating organized crime, Hoodlum Empire has a good cast that includes Brian Donlevy, Claire Trevor, Forrest Tucker, John Russell, and Luther Adler. Directed by Joseph Kane. Because it was produced by Herbert Yates at Republic, his wife, Vera Hruba Ralston has a role.

The committee, led by Senator Stevens (Donlevy) has served subpoenas on members of an organization run by Nick Mancani (Adler). They cannot at the moment find Mancani to serve him, but they do subpoena Charley Pignatalli (Tucker) and Joe Gray (Russell).

Stephens and Gray have a history as they served together in World War II. At the time, Joe was a racketeer and in love with Connie Williams (Trevor).

However, Joe meets Marte (Ralston) in France and decides to go straight. He breaks up with Connie, who then becomes involved with Nick, though she never stopped loving Joe. Joe promises Mancani he will never expose him or aspects of his business.

Joe and Marte marry and have two children. Joe becomes a legitimate businessman. What he doesn't know is that Mancani has set Joe up, putting his name on several rackets.

Senator Stevens doesn't believe Joe when he claims to have been framed. The Army Chaplin, Father Simon Andrews (Grant Withers) knows the truth and wants it to be told. Meanwhile, the Mancani group is nervous that Joe will tell what he knows.

Fine performances, but there is nothing exceptional about this film. It has way too many flashbacks. For Republic, this is an ambitious production.

Good but not great.

OK, this ain't The Godfather, and the budget for this film proves that beyond a doubt. However, despite its low production values, the actors give it their best shot, and the storyline is interesting for two reasons. One is the war connection; war connections can be very strong. The second reason it is interesting is because these people have known each other since childhood; those connections can be very strong as well.

When i was 18, I had to choose being in a straight job for less money, or joining a few of my good friends who were in the illegitimate gambling business. I chose the straight job; more because I feared what my mother would have thought, than anything else.

Joe Gray comes to the same crossroads after he gets out of the Army. He chooses to go straight. But sometimes, it is harder to go straight than one might imagine.

There are good performances all around in this one; and it is a nice, watchable crime film. There is a wordy, overwrought committee member, but other than him, the rest is fine.

Joe Gray, a former gangster who became a hero in World War Two, leads a respectable life until he is called to testify before a grand jury looking into racketeer activity. Of course his former mob cronies, one of whom is his uncle, do not want him to testify and threaten his family. This would have been a good thriller if it did not have the overlong flashback sequences. The flashback to World War Two is overlong, pointless, and looks cheap. Luther Adler and Brian Donlevy give good performances. Even Forrest Tucker is O.K. But John Russell as Joe Gray is stiff and dull. His performance is an embarrassment.

It is the 1950's and the US Government is coming down hard on organised crime, going after the top men in order to cut off the head and kill the snake. Their current target is one Nicky Mansani, the elusive mob boss who has so far managed to stay away from his own senate hearing. As the statements and testimonies come in, the main event is one Joe Gray – who has turned state's evidence against his former mob colleagues, having come back from WWII as a hero and a new man. However, the others aim to prevent Joe from testifying and even set him up for prosecution.

With a title that sounded dark and foreboding and offered the suggestion of a dark crime pulp thriller, I set the video and figured I'd give it a go. However the opening credits suggest a standard period genre film with no frills, an image that the film sadly maintains with the majority of its material. The actual story is a good idea but it is delivered in such a totally flat and unengaging manner that it is really hard to get involved with the film. The flashback structure is difficult to pull off so it is no surprise that the film struggles, but no excuse for being such a mess in regards narrative. The flashbacks are not tense or urgent enough – they needed to be tight, telling and convincing; instead they were often slow, boring and irrelevant. The bits that do work well are lost in a load of scenes that add little to the film and any possible tension is really sucked out of it. As the story goes on it becomes a bit clearer as to its focus and direction but I only really got into it by making an effort and stayed with it despite the delivery – not because of it.

The tone of the film is very melodramatic as opposed to tough and noir-ish and this too is a problem. The dialogue matches this tone and it is too soapy to really suit the subject matter. With the story weakened by the flashback structure and the dialogue being all a bit too melodramatic and earnest, the actors do not have a great deal to work with other than stereotypical cardboard roles from the genre. Russell is far too square and rigid; he never convinces as a former wise-guy and is far to clean-cut and boring as a reformed character. Ralston's character is totally unnecessary and without her the film could have lost most of the WW2 flashback; she is rather bland and added nothing to the film. Withers played blind by being as stiff as a board – sadly he did this in his delivery and not just his posture. Adler is OK but not convincing as a big boss; Tucker is better and more fitting the genre even if it is a by-the-numbers character. Claire Trevor is underused but a good moll and the always-interesting Donlevy was given a solid role in support (I like him – and not just because he is from Northern Ireland!)

Overall this film had potential but it blows it in the delivery. The melodramatic and morally simplistic tone feeds through the script and damages the whole film. The flashback structure is difficult to pull off at the best of times and it falls flat here, producing scenes that are dull, disjointed and unengaging, robbing the subject matter of the dark tone and tight pace that it really needed. The cast are mostly wooden and stiff, with even the OK ones failing to bring much life to this film. Not really worth seeing and I understand now why so few people have seen it.