Histoire de détective

The film is the story of a great detective who didn't know he was trailing his own heartbreak . Brought by William Wyler , Academy Award Winner who gave ¨The best years of our lives¨ and Pulitzer Price Winner Sidney Kingsley , author of ¨Dead end¨ and featuring of the cast that made from the smash Broadway play so sensational about a love with no punches pulled . The picture talks the events at a N.Y.C. police precinct .

Excellent casting with Kirk Douglas as an angry , grumpy and violent police with obsession to imprison a doctor played by George MacReady , Eleanor Parker as the loved wife with a terrible secret , William Bendix as a good , agreeable policeman , Joseph Wiseman as a hysterical thief and Lee Grant who was prized in Cannes festival to the best female interpretation . Cameraman Lee Garmes makes an exceptional cinematography reflecting splendid images in white and black photography plenty of lights and darks , typical of noir cinema . And uncredited John F Seitz who filmed the last three weeks of production . Lee Garmes along with Nicholas Musuruca , John Seitz and John Alton cinematographers are the fundamental artifices of this expressionist cinema or ¨Film Noir¨full of dark and portentous frames . William Wyler direction is magnificent , blending documentary and police critical , he realized this exciting adaptation at a theater until the actors learned the dialog and , after that , he made a quick shooting . The film was nominated for Academy Award Winner to screenplay , Philip Yordan , Robert Wyler , (director's brother) , Eleanor Parker as main actress and Lee Grant as secondary actress . Support cast is frankly excellent such as Horace McMahon, Joseph Wiseman, Michael Strong and Lee Grant , all of them re-enacted their stage roles . Being film debut of Lee Grant and Burt Mushin .

The motion picture was compellingly directed by the great maestro William Wyler . Wyler was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema and the winner of three Best Director Academy Awards . Wyler was a great professional who had a career full of successes in all kind of genres as Film Noir : ¨Detective story¨ , ¨The desperate hours¨ , ¨Dead End¨ ; Western : ¨The Westener¨, ¨Friendly persuasion¨ , ¨Big Country¨ , but his speciality were dramas as : ¨Jezebel¨ , ¨The letter¨ , ¨Wuthering Heights¨ , ¨The best years of our lives¨, ¨Mrs Miniver¨, ¨The heiress¨ , ¨the little Foxes¨ , ¨The collector¨ and Comedy as two films starred by Audrey Hepburn : ¨How to steal a million¨ and of course ¨Roman's holiday¨ with Audrey at her Oscar-winning best and immortal comedy-romance. Furthermore , his greatest hit was the Super-Oscarized ¨Ben-Hur¨. ¨Detective story¨resulted to be a great film , nowadays very well considered . Rating : Better than average . Well worth watching .

In one day in the 21st Precinct of New York, many criminals are booked after being arrested: a shoplifter is brought after stealing a purse in a department store; two burglars with extensive criminal record are captured by a policeman burgling an apartment; the small time embezzler Arthur Kindred (Craig Hill), who is primary, is arrested without any resistance. The tough Detective McLeod (Kirk Douglas), who loves his wife Mary (Eleanor Parker), is an honest detective with strong principles and code of honor and zero tolerance. He is near to conclude a case against an abortionist, Dr. Karl Schneider (George Macready), with the testimony of a witness that is coming to identify Dr. Schneider in the precinct. However, the woman is bribed and the upset McLeod hits Schneider, and he insinuates to McLeod's chief, Lt. Monaghan (Horace McMahon), that the problem is personal and gives the name of Mary McLeod. Lt. Monaghan invites Mary to come to his office for investigation, when deep innermost secrets of her past are disclosed leading to a tragedy.

"Detective Story" is amazingly intense and full of emotions in spite of being shot practically in only one scenario in the interior of the precinct. Kirk Douglas gives an outstanding performance, developing a complex character that sees his principles destroyed in a couple of hours with a great intensity. Eleanor Parker is also fantastic, in the dramatic and heartbreaking role of Mary McLeod. The direction of William Wyler is perfect as usual. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Chaga de Fogo" ("Sore of Fire")

Some films are so full of life they have to be seen again and again. I first saw this one in my early teens and loved it, despite difficulty in understanding it. Decades later I still love it, and always will. It has its flaws: everybody overacts (beautifully), as if on stage. The writing is a bit too well-structured, almost like clockwork, the characters are a bit too symbolic and easy to categorise. The comic relief kicks in just on schedule. The psychological diagnosis is too precise. And yet, this is one of the greatest films ever made. It has a sense of respect for the totality of life, and makes tragedy almost poetic. Fascinating though the plot may be, the essence of this film goes beyond plot. It's a symphony of cacophony. The playwright would have made a fine composer.

An assortment of detectives and an assortment of criminals, all gathered together under the oppressive 21st Precint roof. It's a day that nobody present will ever forget - for better or worse...

Directed by William Wyler (Best years Of Our Lives, Ben-Hur & Wuthering Heights) and starring Kirk Douglas, Eleanor Parker, William Bendix, Cathy O'Donnell and Joseph Wiseman.

Detective Story is based on the smash hit Broadway play by Sidney Kingsley, adapted by Phillip Yordan and Robert Wyler, it's with much relief to me that the worry of it being a stagy production never actually materialises. Practically set on one bleak, but quite excellently appropriate set (creation courtesy of Hal Pereira & Earl Hedrick), Detective Story manages to rise above the very simple plot by boasting interesting characters in a pot boiling story just waiting to reach its peak. Each character has much to offer the film, be it oddly quirky or overtly intense, within the confines of this particular precinct, the characters create engrossing drama.

It's a difficult film to sell without giving too much away, by outlaying the character persona's and mental fortitude's, I personally feel that it will dull the impact of this influential crime genre piece. It's got real raw emotive acting, particularly from Kirk Douglas as Jim McLeod and Eleanor Parker as his wife Mary, while the technical aspects (watch Lee Garmes' camera glide like a third party witness) are impressively high. And with it embracing as it does, morality themes, it also doesn't lack for interest to the cranial head scratching crowd.

It's by definition to me an all encompassing picture, one that is now sure to be a perennial viewing in my home. It's not a standard crime picture, and it most definitely is a talky film, but this works incredibly well, so one can only hope that many others will feel the same as myself, in that namely that it is indeed a fine and essential genre piece. 8/10

Kirk Douglas has always excelled in roles where he plays the maverick loner, walking the fine line between anger and insanity. Thus his role as Det. Jim McLeod in "Detective Story" is a real showcase for his acting talents. This is not a crime drama in the conventional sense where there is any real action or crime to solve, even though you have a room full of New York City police detectives on screen for just about the whole movie. Instead it is a character study of Jim McLeod, played by Kirk Douglas. McLeod's motivation in his work is not to solve crimes or even protect the innocent. Instead, he is motivated by a desire to root out evil by his definition of the word. Evil is something McLeod claims that anyone can easily spot. McLeod's world view doesn't differentiate between the one-time bad act of a basically good person, such as Arthur Kindred (Craig Hill), a young man who impulsively stole from his employer in a last ditch attempt to impress a girl he believed he loved, versus the misdeeds of a lifetime criminal, such as the homicidal maniac Charlie (Arthur Kindred), that has also been apprehended by the detective squad that same day.

When confronted by a mistake in the past of the person nearest to him, his own wife, McLeod is equally unforgiving. His rage and disgust is so great, you're not sure what bothers him more - the discovery of his wife's past or the failure of his own nose to sniff out the misdeed prior to this. By the time McLeod realizes his own inflexibility and lack of empathy have cost him what he loves the most, it is too late to undo the damage, and this leads to one last tragedy.

This is Douglas in an early fine if not huggable role, and is recommended viewing for that reason alone. William Bendix makes up for the lack of likability in Douglas' character as Detective Lou Brady, who likes to temper the letter of the law with a little humanity. Then there's a very young Lee Grant as a shoplifter who just can't stop babbling. Finally, there's Horace McMahon as Lieutenant Monaghan, head of the detective squad and the kind of boss we'd all like to have.