Crime, société anonyme

10 years before Peter Falk racked up a trunk-load of Emmy's and many more nominations for his his work as Columbo, he had two roles that would stand out in the film world. One was Pocketful of Miracles in 1961, and the other was this film the year before.

His performance as the contract killer Abe 'Kid Twist' Reles is the best thing about the true-life mob story. While most of the other characters just seem to float through the movie, he was intense ans you could see the promise that would lie ahead for him.

Stuart Whitman, who would get his only Oscar nomination a year later, was also good as Joey, who got caught up in the rackets. May Britt, who would leave the movies to marry Sammy Davis, Jr., was also very good as Joey's wife.

The movie seems more like a documentary when it is not focused on these three characters. As an added bonus, you get to see the legendary Sarah Vaughan in the movie.

While Murder, Inc. mainly revolves around the capture of gangster Lepke, the most compelling character is hit man Abe Reles, excellently played by Peter Falk in one of his earliest movie roles. He got an Oscar nomination as a result. Those who know him mostly as the calm Lt. Columbo will be very surprised by the intense rage Mr. Falk puts in his performance especially during his "take" speech he gives to a married couple who have no choice but to accept his offer of an apartment he gives them. Also noteworthy are Vincent Gardenia as his lawyer (loved his "I'd rather you were dead" aside before Reles-having overheard him-asked, "What did you mean by that?" "It was just a figure of speech,"comes the reply), May Britt as wife in aforementioned couple, Sarah Vaughan as a nightclub singer (in a musical interlude), and Morey Amsterdam as a comic who meets a tragic end in the beginning. Based on a true story but with, as always, some dramatization involved. One of the two directors was Stuart "Cool Hand Luke" Rosenberg. Well worth seeing for gangster movie fans.

Those who comment that Peter Falk elevated this movie to a very interesting one are right on the money. Falk, in his first role on screen, definitely plays the most interesting character. Of course, anyone who is a deranged killer is likely to be the focus of viewers' attention. However, the actor still has to be convincing and Falk does a fine job here as "Abe Reles."

He's convincing!

What made this film fun for me was not only Falk, but seeing a few other faces I haven't seen in years, such as May Britt, Henry Morgan and Stuart Whitman. Having watched a few "Night Stalker" TV episodes, I was still very familiar with Simon Oakland. The above actors were all very good in here, as was the rest of the cast, except maybe David Stewart as head crime boss "Lepke." He was too bland for his role.

We even get a song from a young Sarah Vaughan and a comedy routine from Morey Amsterdam!

Falk is the undisputed star of the film but second-place, to me, went to Morgan, who was quietly fascinating as the cop "Turkus."

Another nice thing was the DVD which gives us the original widescreen transfer of the film. There aren't many black-and-white CinemaScope pictures available for us movie fans to see, so it was pleasure to view this.

Thank God for Turner Classic Movies for digging up obscure stuff like this, not available on video or DVD, that would otherwise disappear. Not that it's that great a movie; it isn't. There are much better gangster films. However, it is notable for two things: it is Peter Falk's debut film, and it names names, something most gangster films before and after didn't do, unless the film was set well into the past. Of course, all the gangsters whose names are given are conveniently dead: Abe Reles, Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, and Albert Anastasia. A notable omission is Meyer Lansky, who was alive at the time and thus could have sued for libel. But a pretty good overview of organized crime in the 30s and 40s. Albert Anastasia, by the way, was the real life model for Johnny Friendly, played by Lee J. Cobb, in "On the Waterfront." He was gunned down in a barber's chair while he was getting a haircut in a New York hotel barbershop in 1957. 8/10

Murder, Inc. was a B picture and I remember seeing it as a lad as the second part of a double bill back in the days when they had such things. As I was from Brooklyn the whole story of the gang was interesting to a 12 year old. Needless to say the neighborhood of Brownsville had changed quite a bit even in 1960 from 20 years earlier.

The film is based on a book by the real Burton Turkus who must have consented to the dramatic license taken to bring the story of the taking down of Louis Lepke Burkhalter the only top crime boss to this day ever to get the death penalty. But the atmosphere of the Jewish neighborhood of Brownsville in Brooklyn is certainly captured as is the gang that made the place famous.

The film's a good one, not great by any means, but decent enough entertainment performed by a cast that are well known as competent players, but no box office draws in this cast. But one of them really made his own career with this film.

Peter Falk got the part of Abe 'Kid Twist' Reles who is one amoral example of humanity. Like Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano of more recent times in a career where he participated in a couple of dozen contract killings, when he's caught he offers to turn state's evidence. The end he met is part of gangland lore.

What Falk did was turn in a performance that so impressed the critics that he got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Remember Murder, Inc. was a B film, released with no fanfare so to speak so Falk's performance got the acclaim it did strictly by word of mouth.

The competition that year in this category was pretty good. The others who Falk was competing against were Jack Kruschen in The Apartment, Sal Mineo for Exodus, Chill Wills for The Alamo, and the eventual winner, Peter Ustinov for Spartacus. All of those others were high budget feature films with studios behind them with accompanying publicity machinery. Falk may have been there to round out the field, but just the fact he got there is an incredible tribute to his talent and that particular performance.

Murder, Inc. was not Peter Falk's debut big screen performance, but it is the one that made his career. The rest of the cast which consists of such familiar faces as Stuart Whitman, May Britt, Eli Mintz, Morey Amsterdam, Simon Oakland and Henry Morgan as Burton Turkus perform well enough, but Peter Falk as Reles will never leave you.

Talk about making one's own breaks.