A Vingança do Gangster

"The Miami Story" (1954) was one of a whole wave of crime thrillers inspired by the Kefauver Senate hearings on organized crime that focused on individual cities and purported to tell the "story" of the crime wave that overwhelmed the city in question and how it was broken. They usually had some elected official come out on camera at the film's beginning to give the stamp of legitimacy and tell us something about "the story you're about to see" that has absolutely nothing to do with the story we're about to see. In the case of "The Miami Story," that official is Senator George Smathers of Florida, who assures us with a straight face that crime has been virtually wiped out in Miami. Right. (Did anyone inform Santos Trafficante?)

Like all the other films in this cycle, "The Miami Story" takes a stock gangster plot that had been beaten to death in the 1930s and updates it to contemporary Florida. A committee of five Miami civic leaders seeks a way to bring down crime boss Tony Brill and his R&L Industries, the front for gambling and all sorts of vice rackets in Miami, so they call in ex-gangster Mick Flagg, who'd once been framed for murder by Brill and now lives incognito on an Indiana farm. Flagg is given a free hand and in no time at all is going through the motions of setting up a rival operation with Cuban backing, all to intimidate Brill, and ordering the police chief around as if he were Eliot Ness: "Give me some Cubans!" "I want the Biscayne Club closed town tonight!"

The police in this film do all kinds of things on Flagg's orders that they could easily have done on their own. At one point, Flagg has the cops install a TV camera in Brill's office at the Biscayne Club, all to capture private, incriminating conversations. However, TV cameras back then were huge bulky affairs so they can only stick one in an air conditioning shaft with a grill in front of it. As if the gangsters won't bother to investigate why no cool air will be forthcoming that night in the Miami heat. And when the cops watch the proceedings on little TV monitors outside the club, we see Brill and his men on the tiny screens exactly as they're shot in the film, in medium shots complete with pans and zooms. No high angle, no wide angle, nothing blurry, and no AC grill blocking the view! And they hear everything clearly even though no mike was seen installed.

Yes, the film is pretty far-fetched on all counts, never mind that they never even mention the mafia. Fortunately, the film is short (75 min.) and fast-paced and the cast is topped with four actors who really know how to sell this stuff. Tall, rugged western star Barry Sullivan plays Flagg and he's quite forceful and convincing, never one to hold back when a punch or a pistol-whipping are called for. Luther Adler, an old hand at film noir bad guys ("D.O.A.," "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye"), plays Brill with old school charm and an indeterminate, vaguely Eastern European accent. Beverly Garland, also a veteran of "D.O.A." and later to shine in late '50s monster romps like "It Conquered the World" and "Curucu, Beast of the Amazon," plays Holly, an innocent girl caught up in the intrigue who takes sides with Flagg. Brassy blonde Adele Jergens, an underrated '50s B-movie queen, plays Gwen, Brill's all-knowing girlfriend and a cool customer in her own right.

The director is Fred F. Sears, who knew how to craft these things so that they never slowed long enough to give an audience a chance to question it. He and this film's producer, Sam Katzman, and writer, Robert E. Kent, re-teamed two years later for the similarly-themed "Miami Exposé," also reviewed on this site, which suffers from considerably weaker casting and even more ludicrous plotting.

I did not expect to see Barry Sullivan and Luther Adler together in a Fred S Sear's crime flick and produced by the terrible Sam Katzman who, for once, doesn't bring us some lousy junk material. That doesn't make it a terrific crime flick however just an acceptable time waster,, with too much off voice, as in an "expose" cime film. Good photography and good directing. Do not confound this Fred Sears' MIAMI STORY with Fred Sears' MIAMI EXPOSE made just a bit later. Same kind of stuff. I prefered CHICAGO SYNDICATE and also INSIDE DETROIT, also from the same Sears- Katzman collaboration, for whom the best result is and will forever remain EARTH VS FLYING SAUCERS.

Twenty years ago, Barry Sullivan was a big man in the rackets. Now, with gangster Luther Adler running most of Dade County, some honest citizens are trying to clean things up, and Sullivan is their man. He works up a situation in whih he is running some Cuban gangsters (actually Cuban policemen) to take over Adler's empire, triggering an internal war. Adler is supposed by his protege/hitman John Baer, and by Adele Jurgens, who runs several of Adler's businesses, including his escort service . Miss Jurgens' sister, Beverly Garland, is on hand as the good girl caught up in a bad situation.

The acting, under the prolific Fred Sears, is good, and the story wobbles from the tracks laid down by Sullivan to keep things interesting. And, as the voice-over by William Woodson -- this is the era when every crime drama was influenced by DRAGNET -- Miami has been squeaky clean ever since. Just ask Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas.

Viewed Out of Time these 1950's Police Procedurals and City Exposes, both Sub-Genres of Film-Noir, are so Blatantly Chest-Thumping "The Authorities are Your Friend and We Got This"...

Reek of Post-War Propaganda Platitudes to Placate and Control the Masses, it is a Wonder that Anyone at the Time didn't Barf on Their Britches at such Jingoism.

But Apparently Not, and it was a Common Opening to make Audiences Feel Safe and Sound in America.

In this one it is one of Miami's Senators.

Moving On...The Film is Slightly Above Average for its Type with some Stylish Blood-Letting and the Movie is Draped with Shadows.

Barry Sullivan is His Manly Self Punching and Assaulting Everyone in Sight, even Women, to Establish His Force as He Infiltrates Organized Crime in Miami.

B-Babe Beverly Garland, Plays a "Good Girl" in an Early Role and is Expressionistic Introduced to Sullivan with Face in Complete Shadow.

A Couple of Scenes Later Her Face is Beaten to a Pulp by Gangsters because..."She Clammed Up"...

Not Tolerated by the Mob even though this is Seaside.

The uncredited stentorian voice of William Woodson provides the voiceover to this docunoir about the growth of organized crime in Miami in the wake of WWII.

It is a middling effort, standard B flick with standard b&w photography and unremarkable acting. The script really stretches your suspension of disbelief, especially the decision to send former criminal Mick Flagg (Sullivan) into the lion's den, in order to cure the town of its crime pandemic.

One positive aspect about MIAMI STORY: 75' long.