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Howard Duff (Early) plays an unpleasantly ambitious photographer who continually turns up at the right time to make sure he gets the unique picture that everyone wants to buy. He treats everyone with disrespect and has no morals whatsoever. He is guided by his values of greed and self-interest. Well, he gets what he deserves.

It's a strange film in that it is entertaining and I'm going to keep onto it despite the lead man being thoroughly unpleasant. Newspaper editor Bruce Bennett (David) sums things up perfectly for everybody when he says "I don't like him". Yep, no-one does. He reminds me of a typical John Garfield type or Humphrey Bogart. They are solely out for themselves and not particularly relatable or pleasant. God knows why Peggy Dow (Ellen) takes an interest in him. It is just not believable. Duff is a horrible man and he fixates on gangster moll Ann Vernon (Mrs Palmer).

The rest of the cast are good and you root for the rival gangsters Brian Donlevy (Palmer) and Lawrence Tierney (Colton) to reset the power balance against this egomaniac photographer. The moral of the story is good - don't be like Duff!

In Shakedown, Howard Duff plays his specialty, a winsome crumb. As a down-at-the-heels shutterbug desperate for a job, he sells lurid pictures -- drownings, defenestrations -- without any thought to the peril his subjects face. Once he lands the job by buttering up his editor's assistant (Peggy Dow), he realizes that compromising photos of crime figures pay better as blackmail than as journalism. He doesn't scruple to double-cross his prey if the profits can underwrite his taste for the high life, including the widow of a mobster he set up for a hit. When he just happens to be on hand to snap that murder, he causes a sensation but raises suspicions. Of course, his duplicity and greed prove his undoing.... With such familiar tough guys as Brian Donleavy and Lawrence Tierney, the movie clicks right along apace with Duff's camera. A nice irony shades the ending, not unlike the denouement of Taxi Driver: the heel gets turned into something like a hero.

A rising star photographer starts using his journalistic influence for personal profit... and sets two gangsters against each other. Ruthless and cynical, with one of the most despicable protagonists this side of Mike Hammer. This guy is a real piece of work, a sleazy manipulator who doesn't care who suffers for his gain. Howard Duff (probably best known to noir aficionados for THE NAKED CITY) plays it completely unsympathetic, delivering his lines with barely concealed contempt and ambition. The supporting performances are all pretty good, too, with special mention for the always intimidating Lawrence Tierney. The story is lean and mean, like the production. It's a decidedly low-budget affair, a little more polish might have amped up the tension (though I should note I watched a very rough copy). The film doesn't pack much of an emotional punch, but it is a down and dirty good time.

It was said of Joseph Pevney by a colleague that 'some former actors become good directors and some become hack directors. Pevney is no hack and is more than good.'

Although this marks Pevney's directorial debut his undeniable flair and precision are already in evidence, aided immeasurably by one of Universal's most respected editors Milton Carruth.

This is minor Noir to be sure but grips throughout its eighty minutes and reflects not just post War cynicism but the Fourth Estate's questionable ethics when catering to the public's desire for sensationalism.

Pevney is excellent with his actors and the casting is spot on. Not exactly renowned for his sympathetic persona, Howard Duff has arguably his best role as a narcissistic sociopath, a type that the female of the species finds impossible to resist and the troublesome Lawrence Tierney again convinces as a nasty piece of work. On the distaff side there is lovely Peggy Dow who quit filming to raise a family whilst classy Anne Vernon in her only Hollywood appearance provides the Gallic 'Je ne sais quoi'. Solid Bruce Bennett plays a newspaper editor whose conscience is mollified by increased circulation figures. Brian Donlevy has star quality in spades and steals all of his scenes. The eagle-eyed might spot an uncredited Rock Hudson as a doorman. They all have to start somewhere.

The old Hollywood Rule Book requires Duff's loathsome character to get his just desserts but the climax in which he finds redemption has been aptly described by one critic as 'ingeniously ironic'.

I do not know a great deal about Director Joseph Pevney, but his work includes THIEVES' HIGHWAY, so SHAKEDOWN was no beginner's luck. It is a well-directed film anchored in a cast of considerable quality, including Howard Duff in one of his better roles, the always duplicitous Brian Donlevy, Lawrence Tierney, French actress Anne Vernon, Bruce Bennett, and the incredibly beautiful Peggy Dow, who always reminds me of Audrey Hepburn.

Boasting a thought-provoking script with greedy, selfish and ruthless reporter Jack Early (as in the early bird that catches the worm) driving the action, this film may well have served as blueprint for NIGHTCRAWLER (2014). I find it surprising that the puritanical U. S. codes of the 1950s, the HUAC investigation, Senator McCarthy, etc, let this attack on the American Dream show in moviehouses... but I am grateful they did!

Fitting and effective cinematography by Glassberg and editing by Carrugh.

Definitely worth watching!