Rackets à New York

Co.produced from his first novel by Harold Robbins, plainly patterned after 'The Public Enemy' and 'Angels with Dirty Faces' and ambitious enough to hire top cameraman Lee Garmes and commission a romantic musical score from Raymond Scott (with a moralising commentary of the sort later parodied by Russ Meyer). It's failure obviously decided Robbins to stick thereafter to glossy trash (a decision that swiftly made his fortune).

As a leading man John Drew Barrymore as a Jewish gangster proves a chip off the old block, while fourth-billed Steve McQueen as a Jewish lawyer (described by the late David Shipman as resembling "a Botticelli angel crossed with a chimp") already demonstrates the star quality that soon took him to the top and kept him there until his untimely death.

As Barrymore's mother Dolores Vitina is unrecognisable as the sexy green alien (billed as 'Vitina Marcus') she later played in 'Lost in Space', while R.G.Armstrong is allowed more nuance than one initially anticipates as a hired gun.

It's a Harold Robbins story and production, and it's a very interesting story. A mother gives birth to an orphan and dies, the orphan is taken to a catholic orphanage and brought up a catholic. 16 years later he runs away for personal reasons. Before that he has made friends with Steve McQueen and his sister, who becomes his love, but his employer is a gangster, which brings complications and ultimately turns him into a hard knuckles gangster too. Of course it doesn't pay in the long run, but what about his relationships with his best friends, Steve McQueen who turns into his chief prosecutor and his sister, who never let him down? It's a great and fascinating set-up and story, and although it is not quite convincing as a noir, the interesting story remains a lasting curiosity, as the catholic-jewish orphan actually goes through all the worst dregs of life to finally reach - what? That is the question.

I can understand those who award this film full ten points, and those who discard it with a 1. But John Drew Barrymore makes a good job, and Steve McQueen in his first full length movie is already here the reliable character he always was. Even one of the gangsters turn human in the end, but it's too late to stop the tragedy... Raymond Scott's music also contributes to the effort of making it a convincing noir, and almost succeeds...John Drew Barrymore's charming smile doesn't help him much, but he makes the best of it, in this bitter story of a bitter destiny......

The film while not exactly a clunker could have been a lot better.

it has that late 50's b/w gangster feel to it like "Studs Lonigan" a couple of years later. A young Steve McQueen cast as a Jewish kid who becomes an attorney does what he can in a supporting role. The person who did have me riveted throughout was John Drew Barrymore who is pretty good in this although his character gets more absurd as the film goes on. Barrymore was a striking looking actor & had talent enough to have a much better career than he actually ended up having.

His lifestyle choices ruined all that, Lita Milan who plays Barymore's girlfriend retired from films all together shortly after & married the Prime minister of the Dominican Republic or something.

When John Drew Barrymore was making films in the 50s he opted for a more modern style than his father John Barrymore ever tried. The elder Barrymore's classical style of acting was quite passé and would never have been accepted. Sad to say that young Barrymore tried and failed to be a James Dean type rebel. For Never Love A Stranger that's especially interesting because supporting Barrymore was an actor who would become the ideal image of cool.

With elements taken from Manhattan Melodrama and Little Caesar, Never Love A Stranger is an old fashioned type film that probably was an anachronism in the 50s let alone now. Young Barrymore plays a slum kid who suffers an identity crisis when he discovers his Jewish roots after having been raised in a Catholic orphanage.

He goes away but comes back one mean and tough punk who becomes kingpin of the rackets, taking over from Robert Bray who gave him his start. And as it turns out his childhood friend, Steve McQueen becomes the special prosecutor with the mission of bringing Barrymore down.

Steve McQueen might have made this film slightly better had he been cast in the lead. But frankly this film was a turgid mess and I doubt that would have helped.

Never Love a Stranger (1958)

You might be most impressed by the early appearance of Steve McQueen, who shows a spark and intensity that makes him rise above the rest of the cast, who are really rather good in all. It says something about star power, which isn't all smoke and mirrors. You might also get a kick that the leading male (McQueen is secondary) is played by John Drew Barrymore, son of the famous John and father of the famous Drew. Sadly, this man of the generation in the middle was troubled and had a mixture of leading roles, never achieving greatness or fame.

If the plot is a familiar one about two slum kids in New York growing up into opposite roles, one a thug, the other the area's district attorney (there are several of these films), there is another theme that makes the movie singular. That is the issue of being Jewish, and at times downright anti-Semitism, though handled with kid gloves. The fighting between Catholic boys and the one Jewish kid (McQueen) is standard clan rivalry, with a religious twist. But when the other character, raised in a Catholic orphanage, discovers he is actually Jewish, his first reaction is rebellion. And the movie carries this theme throughout, adding a good if forced second level to work with.

I'm not sure it matters, but it's interesting, at least, that McQueen and Barrymore are both not Jewish as far as I know (McQueen in particular doesn't fit the stereotypes, but that's probably okay by itself), nor was the director, Robert Stevens the American (as opposed to the more famous Robert Stevens the Brit). Even more interesting, the book the movie draws from was written by Harold Robbins, whose parents were Jewish immigrants, but when he was a child he claimed (falsely) to have been raised in a Roman Catholic orphanage. For whatever reason, then, the theme is handled with a kind of detachment that makes it odd, and not nearly as affecting as, say, some of the European films that really attack the issue of "passing" for Goy when the Nazi rampage was on (Louis Malle's "Au revoir les enfants" possibly the best). The Barrymore character never does quite accept of address his heritage.

Now to be clear, the movie lacks a directorial touch to keep it alive and pertinent. It's a decent if uninspired effort, but the exceptions will make it worth a close look for some.