O Sádico Selvagem

Good crime drama with interesting settings and some good action scenes.The movie really showcases San Francisco. Sutro Baths ( now sadly lost in a fire) is the setting for a some excellent scenes. You will also see the Opera House, the Ferry Building, some freeways being built, and other interesting sights. If you want to see how San Francisco looked in 1958 and see some pretty good action and some pretty mean bad guys you will enjoy this one.

The late director, Don Siegel, never made a bad film: and many of them were classics of their kind. He directed "Flaming Star", one of Presley's better efforts. He directed Clint Eastwood in "Coogan's Bluff", "Two Mules For Sister Sara", and "The Beguiled". He made one of the best of John Wayne's later films: "The Shootist". He directed the original "Invasion of The Body Snatchers". He also directed now rarely seen films like "Baby Face Nelson", with Mickey Rooney.

"The Lineup" stands out even among this fine body of work. While "The Lineup" is a 'caper' film, it's anything but what passes these days for films of that genre. I was lucky that a film society I belonged to, managed to get hold of a 35mm print of this film, along with prints of "The Hanged Man", Riot In Cell Block 11", "The Verdict", "Baby Face Nelson", and others. Naturally, this and other early Don Siegel films are not on tape. Something I hope will be rectified one day, hopefully now, put out on DVD. Eli Wallach, as 'Dancer', is outstanding, as is Robert Keith as 'Julian'. If it turns up on TV, or cable, cancel everything and watch it. It has one of the best endings ever!

Lots of films have been shot in San Francisco, but few present as many views of the City By the Bay as this one. Here's what we see: Pier 41 and the Embarcadero, Coit Tower, The Ferry Building, The Cliff House, Sutro's Baths (after the closure of the swimming baths in 1954, but during the heyday of the skating rink that took one of the bath's place until 1966--this is probably the only motion picture featuring this rare sight), lots of neighbourhoods, and--to top it all off--a car chase on the then under construction Embarcadero Freeway (since torn down due to earthquake hazard)! Add in a truly exciting and relatively believable story of drug smuggling--certainly cutting edge stuff in 1958--and you have a great little film. Of particular note is Robert Keith (the sheriff in 1954's The Wild One) as one of the twisted criminals. Whenever co-villain Eli Wallach kills someone, Keith writes down the victim's 'final words' in his little black book. And in the some things never change department, Oakland's Lake Merritt is cited as the location of a taxi theft by one of the film's numerous junkies.

I was relaxing in my easy chair when I saw this film pop up on one of the mystery cable channels. I was very surprised and pleased at what I saw. First of all, the comments made about this film having great views of San Francisco are 100% true. I love "noir" films that set a city mood, and this was probably the best film that ever set a "San Francisco mood" with the possible exception of Dirty Harry. A friend of mine lived near the Cliff House and seeing Seal Rock Road and the Sutro Museum (used to be the Sutro Baths) was just incredible. Its just a hole in the ground now. Pier 39, now an over-sized shopping mall, was great to see as well when it was an actual shipping pier. And the movie itself was quite good. Eli Wallach played a sadistic, yet somewhat complex criminal who had no morals and yet showed flashes of compassion. Brian Keith's Father Robert played his mentor with excellence and style. This film was no high budget spectacular but more then made up for it with Siegel's excellent direction and great location scenes. I immediately went online to IMDb to try and buy the VHS or DVD but imagine my surprise when I saw it wasn't available! CMON, LETS SEE THIS ONE COME ONTO DVD!!!!

Heroin from Asia is flooding into San Francisco, carried in souvenirs and curios packed by unwitting mules. When the mules arrive home to kick back after their peregrinations around the Pacific Rim, they are paid an unexpected and usually unpleasant visit by a team of psycho-killers named Dancer and Julian (Eli Wallach and Robert Keith, respectively), who collect the precious narcotic. Wallach is forever on the edge of detonation, so it takes the patient ministrations of Keith to soothe him down and keep him on task; their relationship suggests that of an old queen dealing with rough trade. (Their young driver, Richard Jaeckel -- best remembered as the young Turk in Come Back, Little Sheba -- adds to the homoerotic tone, as does a violent scene in a steambath). Don Siegel goads the action along and knows what he's doing every step of the way. The Lineup marks a no-man's-land between classic film noir, which had pretty much ground to a halt, and the flatter, faster and more sensational thrillers that the early 1960s would bring; in its more modest way, it foreshadows later movies like The Detective, Bullitt and The French Connection.