Rumble on the Docks

Jimmy Smigelski (James Darren) is the leader of the Diggers, a teen gang running around the New York docks area in Brooklyn. Their big rival are the Stompers. Jimmy's father is a honorable business owner who is rallying the locals against the mobsters. Jimmy is befriended by racketeer Joe Brindo who starts pulling him into the criminal world.

James Darren is a good charismatic actor. He's no James Dean but he's plenty James enough. Otherwise, it's all a bit old style 50's teen gangs. It reminds me more of West Side Story than anything else. It does try to be serious but it doesn't have the sharpest edges. Like Jimmy, this movie is a little out of its league.

This film is finally available. I got it at Amazon.com as a manufactured on demand. The DVD says digitally remastered and since it is in the widescreen format I believe them. Anyway, it's James Darren's first film and he does admirably carrying the film. He plays Jimmy Smigelski, the leader of a gang, the Diggers. Robert Blake plays his pal Chuck. I liked most of the performances, however, Laurie Carroll as the love interest for Jimmy was weak. I can see why she is basically unknown today. It's too bad they couldn't have gotten someone like Susan Kohner for that role. Anyway, the film is well worth a look if only because of how they managed in the 1950s to do a film about tough street kids in which no one as much as says damn and still managed to be convincing.

If there's such a thing as a parallel universe, this is the campy, boring, egregious version of Kazan's classic. It's all here: A gang named Stompers and a gang named Diggers. They're unrealistically entwined with non-union dockworkers versus the alternative.

There's the quintessential, immigrant parents of the male lead. There's the stereotypical, female love interest. There's even the pre-pubescent kid that gets the plot rolling in the first 15 minutes.

Robert Blake has a minor role. I'm so sorry Hell Town was canceled.

West Side Story took place in Manhattan; and this story takes place on the docks of Brooklyn. I grew up in Union City, less than a mile from Hoboken, where they filmed On the Waterfront, so I am quite familiar with life on the docks.

This film does not have the production values of West Side Story, or the emotional intensity of On The Waterfront, but it did capture the atmosphere of starting unions where the mob was entrenched. It took until Jimmy Hoffa until the mob was greatly reduced from the docks; and even then, they made Hoffa the foundation of Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands.

In this film, James Darren does his best James Dean imitation, while the crooked union boss, Timothy Carey does his Johnny Friendly imitation of Lee J Cobb. I noted that Robert Blake did not make a great impression in this film, but the talented Jimmy Carey was great as a heavy, and even better in Fargo.

The film has good scenes, some corny ones, and a few violent ones, but it holds up pretty well.

James Darren makes his film debut playing the typical mixed up kid from Brooklyn who eventually straightens himself out. Also, for a change, there are some actual rumbles, although only one of them is on the docks.

The film opens quickly with two members of the "Stompers" trying to assault a chick (Laurie Carroll), when two members of the "Diggers" (Darren and Robert Blake) save the day. Later, during a dance at the school gym, there is a full-scale rumble, ending with two cops running in the front door and everyone else running out the side entrances. Then there is a minor rumble on the docks, between an honest union leader (Joseph Vitale) and the hired muscle from the crooked union (Timothy Carey). Finally, there is a rumble between the Stompers and Diggers on a street. So if you like fights, you won't be disappointed.

In subplots, Darren is being smooth talked by the crooked union leader (Michael Granger, who, like Frank Gerstle, wears the worst fitting suits in the history of filmdom). This upsets Darren's father (Edgar Barrier), who runs a newspaper which is critical of Granger. Meanwhile, Carroll is trying to convert Darren from the dark side.

Carroll: "Oh, the waterfront's always so beautiful at night." Darren: "Yeah, you can't see the garbage floating in the water."

The film is never dull, and doesn't get too preachy either. There are even some shocking scenes, like when some of the Stompers suspend a kid over the side of a building.

Darren is fine in his first appearance, although his eyebrows look a little too furry. Carroll is bland. Robert Blake doesn't kill anybody, so I guess that's a plus. Granger channels Rod Steiger on a few occasions. Carey is his usual creepy self, and is fun to watch. Barrier looks more like Darren's grandfather, as he is disguised like Tim Conway's doddering old man. Celia Lovsky, as Darren's mother, looks more like his great-grandmother. I just cannot watch Lovsky without seeing pointed ears and hearing her tell Captain Kirk "dis fight is to da deadth." Freddie Bell and the Bellboys sing "Get the First Train out of Town" during the dance. After watching them perform, I probably would have started a rumble myself.