Roaring City

"Roaring City" (1951) was the second of three "Dennis O'Brien" mystery films starring Hugh Beaumont. Actually, each of the three has two parts, each a half-hour segment episode that somewhat obviously was supposed to be part of a planned television series which didn't materialize. They're all actually pretty decent little shows, though the dialogue is such that Dashiell Hammett would have had to use a sledgehammer to cut the radio-style gangsterese down to size. In this "feature", as in all of them, Ed Brophy is a drunken partner - a live-in - an ex-professor whose own dialogue is basically nothing but ten dollar gibberish to say anything. It's the humor of these pieces, and it's okay, but that's about it; and Richard Travis is a cop who constantly tries to pin the murders that ubiquitously occur on O'Brien, but in the end has to admit defeat and be "glad" O'Brien helped him - I guess. Joan Valerie, Wanda McKay, and Rebel Randall fill out the female bills in the two episodes which occur here. Bad girls, all of them. Valerie and McKay give rather poor performances. Randall is better. Anthony Warde, Greg McClure, William Tannen, Abner Biberman, and a couple of others are all complicit in being bad. Mediocre stuff, but easy to watch anyway. Directed by William Berke.

Yes, I meant what I said in the summary. Despite a confusing plot and perhaps one too many twists, this is a dandy low-budget example of film noir. One of the biggest reasons to watch it is to see Hugh Beaumont playing such a jaded and noir character. This guy is as far from the Ward Clever character that Beaumont played on "Leave It To Beaver" as you can get!! In fact, his dialog is so snappy and he is so different that I strongly advise you to watch! Sure, I know that Beaumont actually played in a lot of cop films and on TV in roles as crooks, prosecutors and policemen--but this one is so much grittier and amoral than anything I'd seen. Another big reason to watch is because it's not just Beaumont--ALL the people talk with some of the darkest and snappiest dialog imaginable--it's like a textbook example of the genre. Along the same lines, the action is amazingly gritty. I've never seen another film with so many 'dames' getting slapped around!! While this may sound offensive, it really adds to the realism and the women in this film, like the men, are vipers. Finally, a reason I loved it probably won't matter to the average noir viewer, but I loved seeing Eddie Brophy playing such an atypical character. Brophy almost always played low-brow sorts--most often dumb thugs. Here, however, he plays so much against type it made me laugh. Here, he's called 'the Professor' and talks like a Harvard lecturer!! And, he doesn't come off as dumb at all--and sounds quite convincing. Oh, and if you think you recognize his voice, he played Timothy in Disney's "Dumbo".

As I said above, the plot seemed incidental. It all begins with Beaumont playing a private detective who will do almost anything for a buck. A crook wants him to place some bets in his name--as a boxing match has been fixed (boxing not on the level--say is ain't so!). But, when the losing boxer WINS, things start spiraling out of control and Beaumont finds himself suspected of the murder. There is LOTS more to it than that and who is responsible and why is dandy....but the road there is full of a bazillion twists and turns. Relax is my advice...and just enjoy the ride. This is a wonderful example of a low-budget noir film that manages to be better than many of the bigger studio efforts! See it.

Hugh "Leave it to Beaver" Beaumont stars in "Roaring City," from 1951. The film also features Edward Brophy and Richard Travis.

This was apparently one of three feature films that combined two half-hour stories, which answers the question as to why these stories weren't connected. Denny O'Brien (Beaumont) is man with a ship he rents, but he also does odd jobs. He rooms with an alcoholic ex-professor (Brophy) who does some work for him.

The first story concerns a fixed fight that O'Brien is hired to bet on; in the other one, he is hired to pretend to be a woman's husband. These jobs are not without problems. In the fight story, it doesn't go the way it was supposed to; in the other -- well, it's not as straightforward as it first seemed.

Denny usually winds up unconscious or beaten and in hot water with a police inspector. Hugh Beaumont does a good job in the role - he's natural and charming.

I'm not exactly the audience for these low-budget Bs, but I appreciate that they have their place in the noir canon.

Beaumont tries a little too hard to play it constantly cool, but nevertheless he and his roomate Brophy for me are the two most interesting and well played characters in this film. The rest of the cast is another story, in particular the sub-par acting of the sisters. Then there's the dialogue, I know it's supposed to be noir but it's just so stilted and desperately gangsterish, the whole time I just kept wish wisecracks. The story is OK but the poor acting, dialogue, and uninspired direction Roaring City just falls a little short, even at 58 minutes it was still a tad bit too long to keep me genuinely interested.

Hugh Beaumont plays against what folks of my generation see him as: the perfect dad to a perfect family. He ain't no family man here. But, what is he? He seems to be a private investigator without a license holding down a day job as a renter/seller of old boats at the shoddy end of the San Francisco harbor. As Dennis O'Brien, Beaumont isn't exactly Sherlock Holmes (though he does have a low rent professor sidekick and go-fer), nor is he Sam Spade. He's a stupefyingly poor down mix of the two if you're generous.

Actually, with Beaumont there's something ,almost, to like as his charisma occasionally comes through. But, then there's the quirks that apparently the producer and director insert. For one, the "tough guy" dialog is downright laughable akin to the intentional use of such for comedic effect in the Steve Martin flick "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid". Only it's unintentional here thus really bad without the comic relief. It's a big fail.

Also, because this isn't actually a feature B flick at all things never flow. The producer/director/writers have stitched together two segments that must have been meant for a TV pilot and first episode (that were not good enough even for that). So, it's a fledging wannabe movie. The word "clunky" comes to mind even if it was a money move to meet the demand for the double features of the day. Besides Beaumont there isn't much in the acting department either. It leaves one thinking even if there wasn't a financial loss careers were muddied. Somewhere in this mess something quite a bit better could have been crafted around Beaumont's character. It wasn't and instead this is the lame result. It's basically a waste, a which is a generous way to say it's laughably terrible. Don't bother with this one.