Slaughter on Tenth Avenue

Two thugs shoot Solly Pitts, an honest man at the docks, outside his apartment under order from union boss Al Dahlke (Walter Matthau). ADA Bill Keating (Richard Egan) leads the investigation. He faces fear, corruption, and intransigence.

This crime police drama has the feel of substance. There is a visceral reality to the material. The cops are a little too buttoned up but that's the characterization back in the day. He's a statue except for the last act. Matthau is a great sleaze ball. Heck he's great at anything. This is great whenever Matthau is on the screen.

Eclipsed by the accomplishment and reputation of On The Waterfront three years earlier, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue mines a similar vein: corruption in the longshoremen's unions and the violent struggle for their control. And while the earlier movie remains the heavyweight champ , its younger brother can be considered a worthy contender, too. (Its title, by the way, comes from an unrelated George Balanchine ballet of two decades earlier, with music by Richard Rogers retained as the film score.)

While On The Waterfront centered on the lives on the dockworkers embroiled in struggles beyond their control, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue focuses on the Suits who try to prosecute the shooting and later death of one of those workers. Richard Egan plays the young turk in the District Attorney's office who must penetrate the operative code of silence and win the trust of the men working the piers and their families – they're scared, and have no reason to put themselves on the line for what they see as a callous bureaucracy with few teeth.

Egan finally wins over the victim's wife (Jan Sterling) and a few of his cronies, but along the way discovers that wheels turn within wheels. A former prosecutor, now some sort of lobbyist, drags him to meet the slick operator who calls the shots on the waterfront (Walter Matthau, before he became the shambliest of straight men), who tries to buy him off. (Fortunately, the movie entertains no theories about the source – Communists? Organized crime? – of the corruption.) But Egan soldiers on, finally persuading his superiors to bring an indictment despite unreliable witnesses and holes in his case.

And this is the movie's most interesting aspect: How the connections and history linking the police, the district attorney and the legal system (Dan Duryea, with a moustache, is another former prosecutor who lives high as a defense lawyer) compromise whatever justice may ultimately be meted out.

While influenced heavily by the noir cycle that was coming to an end, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue shades more heavily toward social commentary; its upbeat ending, too, is anathema to the pessimism of hard-core noir. Still, its good to see Charles McGraw as a police detective, even if he is sporting a silvery mane of hair.

Based on fact, and hewing closely to a book co-authored by the central character Keating, this movie is based on more or less the real people portrayed in On the Waterfront -- there's even a priest-- only without Brando and without the romance. Egan as Keating is a bit of a stiff. I think the real Keating was more of a rebel. Great title music, an old Rodgers & Hart tune first used in "On Your Toes" for a comic dance number. Still, not much Slaughter and not much Tenth Avenue either. (The real life incident at the beginning took place on Grove Street in Greenwich Village, but "Slaughter on Grove Street" wouldn't sound right, I guess.)

We're back on the troubled waterfront in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" about the corruption and the men who would rather handle it among themselves.

Richard Egan plays a young prosecutor, William Keating who works with a homicide detective, Lt. Anthony Vosnick (Charles McGraw) in an attempt to build a case against thugs hired by union boss Al Dahlke (Walter Matthau). The men shot Solly Pitts (Mickey Shaugnessy) on his apartment stairway. Pitts manages to croak out the names of his killers to his wife Madge (Jan Sterling). Pitts' friend, Harry Bellaver (Benjy Karp) saw the killers leave.

It should be easy to round up the killers, but the dockworkers aren't talking. Adding to the problem, Keating will be facing off in court with a mob lawyer (Dan Duryea).

Pretty good film, but nowhere near as powerful of On the Waterfront, and I'm sure the filmmakers didn't try for that. The last half hour or so takes place in court, and the end is similar to On the Waterfront.

Good performances.

Surely no other film noir has had such an illustrious composer responsible for its theme music. I studied "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue," the musical suite, in elementary school! The movie itself is quite good. It is a gritty story about life on the waterfront. The director isn't famous but I notice he also directed one of my favorites, which I haven't seen in many a long year: "Down Three Dark Streets"! And what a cast! Most people watching today will single out Walter Matthau, who is fine in a relatively small role. But Richard Egan is excellent as an ambitious young cop. Jan Sterling, always good in tough roles, is excellent as the wife of the man who falls victim to the title event. Julie Adams is appealing as Egan's wife. And Dan Duryea gives a bravura performance as a smart but not very admirable lawyer.

The rest of the cast includes such noir staples as Charles McGraw, Sam Levene, and Mickey Shaughnessy.

Initially, I have to admit that I found the music a little distracting. But I got used to it. And the movie hits pretty hard.