Rogue Cop

Rogue Cop is directed by Roy Rowland and adapted to screenplay by Sydney Boehm from the novel written by William P. McGivern. It stars Robert Taylor, Janet Leigh, George Raft, Steve Forrest and Anne Francis. Music is by Jeff Alexander and cinematography by John F. Seitz.

Christopher Kelvaney (Taylor) is a cop on the take from the mob that's fronted by Dan Beaumont (Raft). When his brother and fellow cop, Eddie (Forrest), is requested to withdraw testimony about a crook covered by Beaumont, Chris is compromised and danger lurks for all involved.

A face wrinkled like Venetian blinds.

Out of MGM, Rogue Cop is a better than average venture into film noir territories. Characters are standard fare for such plottings, but the moral quagmire at Kelvaney's core lifts things considerably. Helps also that Kelvaney is a cop with a quip, the script affording the character some hard boiled edges. With Seitz on photography duties, Rowland is able to fill out the pic with usual noir trappings, where shadows and dim lights exude a doom ambiance.

Stoolies Incorporated.

Scenes are staged in noir funky locations such as a penny arcade (scene of the vicious crime that kicks everything off), a race track and of course shimmering streets, the latter of which plays host to the gun laden finale. Colourful characters such as Francis' (excellent) lush moll and Olive Carey's wise old news stand operator (info for sale) add some side-bar female essence to the moody tale. The ending could have been bolder as per outcome, but it sits OK, and since the story has its share of emotional wallops for some of the players, it ultimately ends up as a comfortable recommendation to noir fans. 7/10

With some of the roles he played as he got older, it's hard to believe that at one time MGM was worried about a powder puff image that Robert Taylor had in his youth.

Seeing Taylor as Chris Kelvaney in Rogue Cop is like seeing a whole different player than Armand in Camille. But it's the same guy and a film like Rogue Cop brings out the maturity and depth Taylor had as an artist as well as a person.

Taylor is a long time big city cop on the take to gangland boss George Raft. He's risen pretty high in the department and could go farther. He's a pretty cynical dude, in his chosen field he's seen a lot of the worst that people can be.

But he's got a kid brother played by Steve Forrest who's a straight arrow. He doesn't know about his brother and he gets himself killed because he crosses Raft in the performance of his duty.

Forrest's death gives Taylor a mission, he'll take Raft down no matter what it costs.

There are two prominent female roles, Janet Leigh as Forrest's girl friend who later develops an interest in Taylor and Anne Francis as Raft's moll who turns against him. Both women hold their own in what is a male dominated film. Francis borrows quite a bit from Gloria Grahame and her performance in The Big Heat. Also both Rogue Cop and The Big Heat have blackmail of a syndicate boss as the underpinning of the story.

Raft of course is in his element as a gangland boss. In the rest of the cast there's a very nice performance by Robert Ellenstein as Taylor's honest partner. The final shootout with Raft and company with the two of them is one of the best and most realistic ever staged in a film.

For Robert Taylor fans, Rogue Cop is an absolute must and people who don't think much of Taylor as player will be jolted at how well he does in this film.

This picture is an example of a perfect cast. The leading role is a possibility for Robert Taylor to prove that he is an allrounder as an actor. Hard, dirty and gritty - he even use "angelface" Janet Leigh for his interests. Miss Leigh as pretty and credible as always. The same to George Raft. He even could play his part asleep. Anne Francis, Steve Forrest and Vince Edwards are also convincing. Roy Rowland (he directs Taylor in the western-comedy-hit "Many rivers to cross") captures the atmosphere of policeman and gentleman-gangster. Writer Boehm also is the author of "The big heat" an movie which is similar in atmosphere and plot.

Robert Taylor plays Chris Kelvaney, a dirty cop on the take with the mob in this exciting police drama. Taylor goes on a campaign of revenge against those very mobsters, who decide to kill Kelvaney's brother, also a cop, for witnessing something that could incriminate the mob leaders.

The biggest surprise here is Robert Taylor's performance as the dirty cop. We have seen him play many rather stiff heroic types such as in "Ivanhoe", but here, he is tough and gritty as the dirty cop, and very believable. The dialogue in this movie is sharp and well written and similar to a Raymond Chandler detective novel. There is also a good fist-fight between Alan Hale, Jr. ( yes! the skipper on Gilligans Island) and Robert Taylor. A top notch supporting cast rounds out what is an overall good movie , especially for those who like the old hard-boiled detective stories.

By 1954, the noir cycle had already sounded most of its dissonant themes. Audiences had seen the crooked cop with the straight-arrow younger brother (The Man Who Cheated Himself); the shantoozie with a past (Gilda, Dead Reckoning, The Last Crooked Mile); the slick mobster beyond the reach of the law with his alcoholic, trophy mistress (Key Largo, Railroaded,The Big Heat); the street-savvy old jane who passes on scuttlebutt for a price (Pickup on South Street). But, as Roy Rowland's Rogue Cop demonstrates, there were still changes to be rung on those themes, jazzed up with fresh casting and pithy writing.

Here, the cop gone sour isn't a homicidal brute like Edmond O'Brien in the same year's Shield For Murder (both movies were adapted from books by William McGivern, as was Fritz Lang's The Big Heat). He's dapper, laid-back Robert Taylor, known by his `brothers' on the force to be on the take but given a wide berth despite it (it's the thin blue line's equivalent of omertà).

When his younger brother Steve Forrest, also a policeman, identifies a connected hit-man, Taylor receives a summons from his paymaster, crime boss George Raft. Either Forrest recants his testimony, in return for a $15-grand payoff, or he'll be killed (the accused knows too much and might sing if convicted). Upon delivering the ultimatum, Taylor gets rebuffed by Forrest; he then tries to blackmail his brother's fiancée Janet Leigh, a nightclub singer, into trying to change his mind. Taylor doesn't really want Forrest to go bad, he just doesn't want him dead.

But Raft plays tougher than Taylor imagines. Lulling Taylor into thinking he still has time, Raft has Forrest shot in the back. And so the worm turns: Using both Leigh and Raft's discarded moll Anne Francis as his allies, Taylor swears vengeance....

Crisply photographed by John Seitz, Rogue Cop burrows snugly into its rotten urban core – a city of dreadful night. With its large and aptly chosen cast, it nonetheless rests squarely on the shoulders of its central character, Taylor, who comes through with the performance of his career. At age 42, he passes muster as a burnt-out cop who's sold out for easy money – in this urban jungle, corruption is just another perk passed up only by fools -- but still has the wits and the will to spring a few surprises when cornered.

There's plenty of brutal, even sadistic, action, but Rogue Cop is less an action picture than a character study that Taylor, somewhat surprisingly, manages to pull off. With its siblings The Big Heat and Shield For Murder, Rogue Cop makes up a grim tryptich of big-town America in the mid-20th century.