Colère noire

I nearly forgot this crime film that I have in my library since forty years now, taped off from a French TV channel. It is a great powerful crime flick, pulled by two stars of the gangster film genre. Both were legends the previous decade(s) especially Edward G Robinson, who was a legend even before Alan Ladd. So this Warner film reunites them for the first and only time. That's a pretty good reason not to miss it. The plot is of course overused, predictable at the most, but adapted from a William McGivern's novel. And as an Alan Ladd's vehicle, only William Bendix is missing, he was a long time Alan Ladd's buddy on screen and maybe not only on screen.

As is the case with so many f these films rom the 40's and 50's, the sub plots involving love trysts/issues bring down the movie. I suspect they were added to get a female in the film.

Too bad.

Alan Ladd, who is the star is actually a weak link. Robinson is good as the gangster.

Over all tho, despite some glaring plot holes (like a guy tells you he's gonna kill you when YOU have the gun and you let him go?) it's a pretty good flick.

This film offers a lot of potential. The cast features Robinson and Ladd, the city in the background is a great one and the plot offers us murder, conspiracy, betrayal, infidelity and revenge. So why is it so very pedestrian from start to finish? I'm not totally sure as to the why but I have little doubt this is the case since the film really crawled across my screen, offering very little to make me sit up and take notice at any point. The problems for me are several but they are mostly intertwined to create one central problem which is that the film really lacks atmosphere and tension.

The most obvious cause of this is the setting and the delivery. San Francisco is a beautiful city and one filled with coolness; it isn't the best backdrop for a tough noir-esque film. The film delivers the city in full color with lots of space and vibrancy and this doesn't help the tone of the film. This isn't to say that such a film can't be set in such a place, but if it does then it needs to create an atmosphere another way – setting it in gritty urban decay would have helped but it isn't necessary if ou deliver with plot, performances and other ways to make atmosphere. Sadly this film doesn't. In terms of characters they are flat and the performances match this. Ladd is supposed to be bitter and driven by rage but never looks more annoyed than someone who has misplaced their car keys. He really sleeps through this and even in the "dramatic" conclusion, his face is more emotionless than Steven Seagal. Robinson does his thing but without anything much to work with, so he is only his usual style, nothing special. The rest of the cast have some good turns but generally the pace is set by the leads – and the pace is slow.

This really hurts the atmosphere and I never felt anything other than a general plod through a plot which didn't have anything to it. The bright color and space of the film doesn't help, but the lackluster performances and lack of general tension or atmosphere do more damage again.

... this film features Alan Ladd as a bitter ex-cop just released from prison for a killing he didn't commit out to find those behind the murder. A Jaguar Production (Ladd's own company) released through Warner Bros.,

While the story is nothing special and the final resolution quite conventional, this film can be regarded as a well crafted programmer, noteworthy for a superior cast. As Vic Amato, the underworld king who rules the Frisco waterfront, Edward G. Robinson dominates every scene he is in. This film was made at a time when Robinson was having difficulty getting employment in major features due to the blacklisting scare taking place in Hollywood at the time. It's great to see that the actor had lost none of his force as a performer when given a good role.

Paul Stewart gives a sympathetic performance as Amato's gunsel underling, constantly dealing with abuse from his boss who derives sadistic pleasure from riding him about his scarred face and time in the "big house," to which he frequently threatens to return him.

Also in the cast are Joanne Dru, looking quite lovely as Ladd's wife, still in love with him but towards whom he is bitter since she had a brief dalliance due to loneliness during his five year prison confinement, Fay Wray as a retired film star dating Stewart, and William Demarest as a cop who is still a friend of Ladd's. Rod Taylor (billed as Rodney) appears as a hood, as well as, both unbilled, one star from the past, Mae Marsh (once a D. W. Griffith heroine) and one of the very near future (Jayne Mansfield).

This film was a reunion for Ladd with director Frank Tuttle, the man who had been behind the camera for This Gun for Hire, the film that had made the blonde actor a star 13 years before.

Many of the outdoor shots were clearly done on location in San Francisco. It's nice to see those hilly roads, with the bay glistening in the background, adding authenticity to the film. Max Steiner also provides the film with one of his typically strong scores, music that can make an ordinary film somehow seem better than it really is.

I've always had a soft spot for Hell on Frisco Bay. There's a comforting familiarity to this kind of tough guy action drama which, combined with Robinson's outstanding performance as an old time ruthless gang boss, makes this film definitely worth a view. It's nice that the film has finally become available on DVD via the Warner Archive.

The quietly Alan Ladd this time played a bittered former Cop wrongly sentenced for a five years in prison by a murder that he actually wasn't guilty, back at San Francisco streets he tries hard clean his name and promising kill Victor Amato (Edward G. Robinson) a mobster that lead San Francisco's harbor on fishing boats's union, worst his wife had an affair meanwhile he stayed at prison, due it he refuses be back at house.

Who stolen the picture quite sure is Robinson as usually, he often mocking his scar-face body-guard (Paul Stewart) by he had often praying on death row until Vic arranged he get out of there, also he used to taunt his love affair with a former movie-star (Fay Wray), oddly enough Vic is married with a true believer blessing woman (Renata Vanni) in fact even of Italian heritage Vic hates whatever persons tied by church.

In other hand the wooden face Alan Ladd tracks down a hint aiming for bind Vic that was the mastermind of his misfortune, in the meantime he used to going to a nightclub where his beauty wife (Joanne Dru) works as singer (I see), nothing stunning or so, however let see it easily, aside the far-fetched outcome at San Francisco bay.

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First watch: 2024 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7.5.