Linciaggio

When commenting about "The Lawless" (from 1950) - I know one thing for certain - It's very rare to come across a Hollywood production from that one's era that actually dared to make such a bold and adverse statement regarding serious racial discrimination in "Smalltown, USA".

Set in and around the seemingly quiet town of Santa Marta, California - "The Lawless" was certainly a tough, little social drama (once things finally got cooking) that clearly pitted the privileged whites against the "near-poverty-level" Mexican fruit-pickers of Sleepy Hollow.

I think it's interesting to note that this low-budget production was one of the very last Hollywood pictures to be directed by Joseph Losey.

In 1951 Losey was, indeed, blacklisted (for his apparent Communist ties). And with his directing career in Tinseltown now completely ruined by those self-righteous witch-hunters - He had fled to Europe where he attempted to continue his present occupation over there.

..And some of those "B"s are far better than some of the "A"s of today. Macdonald Carey is at his best here as an editor who slowly becomes involved in the conditions and prejudices against the California fruit pickers. this movie is way ahead of its time in how it depicts a small city in the grip of discrimination and fear. Gail Russell, though never a great lead, is luminous here and utterly convincing as Mac's opposite - the editor or a Mexican newspaper. I was completely caught up in and the ending is quite nerve-wracking, you cannot predict which way it is going to go. The supporting cast is also terrific and the crowd scenes and slow panning action for the dance in the country and the street scenes is amazing. I understand the director was a victim of the McCarthy witchhunt and lived out his days in England where he directed "Dirk Bogarde" in "the Servant" another great movie. Highly recommended, an 8 out of 10.

One of the best things about Joseph Losey is that he often made socially-conscious films. This is certainly no different. The premise to this film is good, but the execution is just a bit short. The story is about a Mexican youth in a border town who gets up caught in a violent situation that leads to a manhunt for him. The white part of town and the brown part of town are at odds here. There is a different kind of twist in the film that doesn't make both sides simply good and bad. Gail Russell plays a Mexican newspaper editor. Uh-huh. It's very far-fetched. MacDonald Carey plays the big-shot editor of the big paper in town. It's a middling film but with a daring message for its time.

Santa Marta is a small agricultural town in California. Mexicans are the fruit pickers and there is tension between the races. Paul Rodriguez and his friend Lopo Chavez are pickers. They get into a car accident and fight with a couple of local white boys. The two locals keep a grudge and spread discontent. Paul's friend Sunny Garcia works at a small Spanish-language newspaper. She meets Larry Wilder at a dance. He's the new editor of the bigger white newspaper. A fight breaks out at the dance and an unscrupulous reporter builds it up to be a riot. Paul steals an ice cream truck and becomes a fugitive after a series of incidents.

This is trying to tackle the theme of ingrained racism. It's interesting that there are differing elements within the community, both good and bad. The initial meeting with a cop is an interesting one. It's a little shocking to have a good cop dealing with these kids like human beings. There are good cops and bad cops. There are good parents and bad parents. Even the lead character is not an ally for most of the movie until he turns into a hero. The movie is not doing the easy hit. More than anything, it shows how irresponsible media can fire up the baser instincts. The movie is showing how civility can be easily lost and the ugliness bubble up.

Today is so easy touch in this neuralgic matter at southwest American territory when it were fulfilled by Mexican's family workers who crossed the border to living into self-called American dream of life, on post war on fifties all America were in economic boom, needing those hard workers on the crops due strong demand, they living segregated on peripheral low profile neighborhoods, as shows at Sleepy Hollow community, even they were born on the American soil weren't recognized as such.

Joseph Losey has a never to put it on a picture, aside it doesn't has a great cinematography, the story overcame it on plenty, exposes on hard way a sad story about a teenager Paul Rodriguez (Lalo Rios) a son of Mexican immigrants that was born at America, after a small car's accident at street with his friend coming from an exhaustive working day picking tomatoes on the fields, the victims are two white fancy boys, followed a little quarrel stopped at once for the Police, later it's triggers a tragic events, these white boys going to at Sleepy Hollow's dancing party looking for trouble, soon starts a scuffle between them, the localo police intervenes quickly, on the thuggery Paul punchs accidentally a police officer, seeing the mistake the scared boy sneaks there, the policeman follows him, the boy stolen two cars on the run and hiding in a quarry.

Meanwhile appears there a newspaper's editor Larry Wilder (MacDonald Carey) who witnessed the scuffle, in same time a strong police squad arrives, Larry figures out the boy certainly will killed by those angry men, he finds the boy cornered at mainstay of river's bridge, under massive gunshots, under police's hands another arguing in the police car results in a crash, under the fire once more the boy escapes and try hidden in farm where a little girl hits her head at timber beam, later she misinform struck by the boy, at last the boy is caught.

Larry Wilder aided by a Mexican newspaper Sunny Garcia (Gail Russell) looking around and testifying the massacre of the news, television, radio broadcasting already blaming the boy without any fair judgment, he employs a fundraising campaign through his newspaper in order to pay the best defense attorney allowed on Santa Martha, it's unleash a riot on his newspaper tearing up the place and also at police precinct to get the boy to make justice for their own hands.

Apart the small budge presentation the movie rocks, in a period of time utterly impossible to talk about in this issue, it's an independent movie implied by the bold Losey with fortitude, thus he enters in the blacklist soon, pay attention on Martha Hyer on smallest role, almost in a twinkling of one eye, the upcoming Goddess of the cinema.

Thanks for reading.

Resume: First watch: 2021 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.