Vice Squad

Excellent cast. Paulette Goddard, basic minor role but still has the oomph. E.G. Robinson never ceases to amaze me, he is always the main force in all the movies he is in, I never tire of seeing him on film. The film did a very good job of developing the day to day business of a major city police station without making the police to appear as super human beings.

A cop-killer main plot is woven into a typical day in a police captain's LA precinct.

I really like seeing Barry Kelley's shyster lawyer get the run-around, getting all huffy and dyspeptic while the cops squeeze his client (Hall). Kelley was so good at smug, high- powered lawyer types that it's fun seeing him flustered for a change. The movie's almost a rogue's gallery of shady characters from the 50's, including that great little gnome Percy Helton whose deluded character apparently has "tv images" following him around! I'm just sorry we don't see more of the coquettish Goddard and her "escort" service (now what was that phone number again?).

Nothing exceptional here, just a really well-paced look at a police precinct in action. So look quickly because the characters-- excepting Robinson's police captain-- move in and out briskly, as do the many LA-area locations, circa 1953. At the same time, many of the cameo characters are well- etched. Note, for example, how the mortuary's secretary tries to pull a "bait and switch" on a customer, using an advertised $650 service as bait and then switching to a much more expensive one. That's the sort of incidental touch that really adds color, especially to a B- movie like this.

Speaking of touches, note the questionable tactics the cops use in chasing down the killers. Getting wimpy undertaker Hall to lie about his eye-witness identification is perhaps the most legally questionable, but not the only one. There's a clear effort at portraying police methods more realistically than usual, especially for the politically chilled 1950's. Anyway, in my little book, this is Hollywood thick ear at its slickest and most watchable.

This is not one of Edward G's best films. In fact it may be his worst but it is still watchable. It's pretty much a run of the mill 50's crime story which centers around the activities in one day of a detective's life. Good black and white photography with excellent location shots.....not much use of studio sets. This adds to the realism and if you like old cars, the street scenes are for you! Edward G. is, as usual, top notch and for once gets to be a good guy. An aging Paulette Goddard, whose star was really on the wane, is adequate as the madame of an "escort service"....a thinly disguised brothel....her wordplay with Edward G. is sharp and ever so sexy. The supporting cast is familiar to all......and Lee VanCleef pops up as a killer (what else?) in one of his early films before he became an icon in Italian westerns. This is an enjoyable, throw-away film that is worth catching on some late night weekend. Anything with Edward G. is always one to watch.

Arnold Laven's VICE SQUAD is a 1953 "police procedural" B that follows LA police chief Edward G. Robinson around for a day and he sees it all: a patrolman shot, a marriage bunco, pickpockets, an "escort service", a bank heist, police snitches, and other flotsam and jetsam with some harmless insanity and adultery thrown in for good measure. It's all in a day's work for the chief, a no-nonsense man with a kind side (reminiscent of Robinson's "Asa Keyes" only less verbose) who gives everything from misdemeanors to murder raps the attention they merit and even manages to squeeze in an appearance on a TV talk show (cut short, of course, when he finds out the cop died). He's got time for everyone and always gets his man but the methods the police use would cause rioting in the streets today. Oh well, the ends justify the means and it's all for a good cause at the end of this day.

Actors like Eddie G., Barbara Stanwyck, and a host of others always did their professional best in these kinds of '50s B's which makes them a pleasure to watch even if the movies themselves aren't so hot. This one's not bad with the LA locations and unsung character actors (milquetoast Porter Hall, sinister Lee Van Cleef, sweaty Adam Williams, and an uncredited Percy Helton) all helping to raise it a notch above the routine. The billed-above-the-title co-star Paulette Goddard didn't hurt, either, and makes the most of her brief scenes. She's a sassy "escort operator" in sunglasses and mink that was probably based on "Hollywood Madam" Brenda Allen, in the news at the time for testifying before a Senate subcommittee hearing on police corruption in LA. Those hearings became the basis for William McGiver's THE BIG HEAT, which was made the same year and, in fact, VICE SQUAD seems like a "good cop/bad cop" counterpoint to Fritz Lang's brutal noir.

If you're old enough to remember L.A. in the early fifties, this is particularly fun. Lot's of location stuff, downtown, Long Beach or San Pedro. And the bank robbery takes place in Beverly Hills on Camden or Roxbury Drive, just below Little Santa Monica Blvd. Edgar G. Robinson is great as always. It's a cousin to Noir, lots of great faces and character acting. They couldn't afford a lot of sets, or any star beyond E.G.R., which is part of the charm of the movie. And if you like Detroit when it still had character, you'll love the great early fifties cars.