Vice Raid

Vice Raid (1960)

A sensational topic, some steamy jazz, and the gritty big city. Could be good, I think. And it starts with a bang and a twist.

But it does not keep its high level of surprise and suspense, and it never quite forms a convincing plot The center of it is a vice squad, which is a police unit that investigates what are moral crimes like prostitution and, in the old days, things like homosexuality. The units are much revised (luckily) from the days in the mid-Twentieth Century when they would do raids on gay bars and suspicious clubs with back rooms, you get the idea.

I watched this very B-movie look at a vice squad in an unnamed city (let's say it's Cleveland) partly for the photographer, Stanley Cortez, who has some classics to his credit, yet even the photography is routine. The actors, and the acting, isn't bad, and they generally are fitting for the plot, which does keep interesting if a bit stiff all along.

It starts with a well used omniscient voice-over that makes it a pseudo-documentary. And the first part of the movie is a straight up story of a cop going after prostitution in town. And then things go wrong. And then, in a fun shift, the prostitute becomes a main character and her sweet little sister comes to town. This gives things another dimension, and if not exactly any more convincing, it's a welcome layer.

Eventually the tables turn again, and we see law enforcement do a clever job breaking up a syndicate. I don't think this makes for great watching--and for 1960 it feels very old, as if the director hasn't noticed the times both in the movies and in television have changed.

The headline covers just about all that's good with this supposed expose' into the tawdry call girl-model industry. The movie isn't campy enough to be funny, in fact it's cleaned up look and LA feel (it's supposed to be New York City) work against it.

****POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT****

The film runs a scant 71 minutes and cuts corners from the onset. Two vice cops a known low level mobster attempting to transport a would be model-call girl into town at a bus station. Since she's over 21 and stacked (Juli Reding as Gertie) it's assumed she's coming to town to become a working girl. What happens to her 'transporter' doesn't fit the accusation and it's only there to expose one of the vice cops as being a bad cop. The good cop takes Gertie to the ticket window to give her a bus ride out of town.

Good cop Sgt. Whitey Brandon (an OK Richard Coogan) is out to bust mob boss' Vince Malone's (Brad Dexter) model-call girl racket. The alluring Carol Hudson (Mamie Van Doren) is recruited from Detroit to entrap the vice cop. He poses as a photog; she hired as a 'date' and busted...but not before she struts her stuff in a white bathing suit.

Carol turns the tables on Brandon and charges him with entrapment and he's bounced from the force. Brandon then unbelievably goes into business himself to break Malone. One of Malone's thugs Phil Evans (Barry Atwater) lusts for Carol and when she rebuffs him repeatedly, goes after her younger, naive sister Louise (Carol Nugent).

After Phil attacks Louise, Carol decides to help Brandon bring down the racket because Malone (now her boyfriend) takes the mob's business first approach to little sister's attack.

I didn't know bad guys and cops still used tommy guns in 1960. Movie lacks any real seediness, looks like a bunch of air brushed gals right out of the men's mags of the day, doing a little fun modeling on the side for some randy clients. No hint of abuse, no booze, or drugs. Only hint of realism is innocent Louise being attacked by the creepy Phil.

Of course, the bad mob boss loses, Carol is exonerated since she helped and good cop Brandon she's both Carol and little sister Louise happily off as we reach the end. Only Mamie, clad mostly in form fitting white makes this one watchable.

A vice detective goes up against a call girl (Mamie VanDoren) and loses in court. But once unemployed, the cop starts handling investigations his own way.

I really liked this film. As a historian who focuses on organized crime, I liked the idea of the "octopus" and "syndicate" without the film having to say Mafia or resorting to Italian-American stereotypes. While the Mafia probably was the dominant force at this time (the 1960s), they were hardly alone.

The subject matter was also handled really well. Although the story centers on prostitution, it was done in a clean manner -- no sex, no nudity, no vulgar language. There were some slinky outfits, but nothing racy. Today, I doubt they could make this film without plenty of sex in it, and I much prefer this version. I liked it even more because of the narration.

This is not the best Edward L Cahn's film, unlike GUNS GIRLS AND GANGSTERSa, also starring Mamie Van Doren, but with Lee Van Cleef and Gerald Mohr, a film far more interesting, taut, tough than this predictable and tepid one. Brad Dexter is excellent as the mob leader but that's all. The overall atmosphere of a US noir movie is OK, for,moviegoers more or less craving for Mamie Van Doren, and I know this poor man's Jane Mansfield has a fan club all over the world, even now, eighty or at least seventy years old fans. It is shown as a kind of expose crime drama, with an off voice, but I repeat: everything is predictable here; the good cops and gorgeous moll against the evil syndicate...No, really, I prefered GUNS, GIRLS AND GANGSTERS. Even Sam Katzman's movies as a producer, with Fred Sears as a director were better than this one.

Vice Raid (1960)

** (out of 4)

Crime boss Vince Malone (Brad Dexter) deals in various illegal activities but prostitution is his number one money maker. The only problem is vice squad member Whitey Brandon (Richard Coogan) who will stop at nothing to bring him down. Malone gets the idea of sending in a beautiful woman named Carol (Mamie Van Doren) to get Brandon kicked off the force but once off the force he finds more ways to get to the underground. VICE RAID is like many crime pictures from this era as it features the "Dragnet" type narration and a story that doesn't throw too many twists. In fact, the entire story pretty much plays out just like you'd expect it to and the lack of any real drama or tension keeps it from being much better than it could have been. The best thing about the picture is that it contains some rather frank dialogue involving teenage girls being abused by these smut magazines and the lowdown of prostitution is also talked about rather freely. The performances are another plus with Coogan doing a nice job in the role of the vice squad leader who finds himself on the wrong side of the law. I thought Coogan was quite believable in the part and made for a good heavy. Dexter was also quite good as the bad guy and we also get nice work from Barry Atwater and Frank Gerstle. This here is probably the best I've seen Van Doren, which might not be saying too much but I thought she handled her own quite well. Carol Nugent is rather memorable in the role of the sister. The biggest problem is certainly the screenplay but director Edward L. Cahn never adds any energy or life to the picture. In the end, VICE RAID is a decent crime picture but there's certainly nothing about it that makes it a must see.