Vice Raid

The film begins in New York City with two vice cops named "Whitey Brandon" (Richard Coogan) and "Ben Dunton" (Frank Gerstle) intercepting a mobster by the name of "Muggsy" (Shepherd Sanders) and a young female model he is escorting from Dallas named "Gertie" (Juli Reding). As it turns out, Muggsy works for a mob boss named "Vince Malone" (Brad Dexter) who has made a fortune operating a high-class prostitution ring which he fills with women coming from various cities to include Detroit, St. Louis and Chicago. In this particular case, Whitey has gotten wise to Malone's activities and all he needs is some inside information from Muggsy to help clarify a few things. What Whitey doesn't realize, however, is that his partner is also working for Malone and, rather than jeopardize his position, kills Muggsy the first chance he gets him alone. Needless to say, this creates a problem for Whitey's investigation. Conversely, it also creates a problem for Malone who decides to get rid of Whitey by framing him for a crime he did not commit. And to do this he calls Detroit and has them send a special call girl named "Carol Hudson" (Mamie Van Doren) who is as smart as she is beautiful. Unfortunately, what nobody counts on is Carol's younger sister "Louise Hudson" (Carol Nugent) arriving a few days later which severely complicates matters for all concerned. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay crime-drama which, for all intents and purposes, relies more heavily upon the presence of Mamie Van Doren than anything else, as she totally dominated every scene. Yet even though she definitely adds a certain amount of pizzaz to what would otherwise be a rather drab picture, her presence alone wasn't quite enough for me to rate this movie any higher than I have. Average.

Syndicate crime boss Malone (Brad Dexter) wants to get do-gooder vice cop Whitey Brandon (Richard Coogan) out of his hair so he sets up a rather intricate plot of framing him. Malone gets "model" Carol Hudson (Mamie Van Doren) to come into town and lie that Brandon tried to extort her during a bust. Thankfully, the department is prone to believing the testimony of floozies over their most decorated cop and Brandon is fired. So he sets out to get his revenge and receives an unlikely ally in Carol after her teenage sister is raped by one of Malone's hoods. This was actually my first Van Doren film and I enjoyed it. She is definitely a looker and you can bet the soundtrack fills with swooning jazz when she enters the picture. She is also pretty decent as an actress. Also of note is Juli Reding, who has one scene early on as a "model" who is more than proud to show her magazine work to Brandon ("Close it up or you might catch cold.") Coogan, looking a bit like Robert Stack, is good in the lead, if a little stiff. Director Edward L. Cahn definitely won't be accused of doing anything inventive during the proceedings, although there is a nice dummy fall during the final shootout.

The headline covers just about all that's good with this supposed expose' into the tawdry call girl-model industry. The movie isn't campy enough to be funny, in fact it's cleaned up look and LA feel (it's supposed to be New York City) work against it.

****POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT****

The film runs a scant 71 minutes and cuts corners from the onset. Two vice cops a known low level mobster attempting to transport a would be model-call girl into town at a bus station. Since she's over 21 and stacked (Juli Reding as Gertie) it's assumed she's coming to town to become a working girl. What happens to her 'transporter' doesn't fit the accusation and it's only there to expose one of the vice cops as being a bad cop. The good cop takes Gertie to the ticket window to give her a bus ride out of town.

Good cop Sgt. Whitey Brandon (an OK Richard Coogan) is out to bust mob boss' Vince Malone's (Brad Dexter) model-call girl racket. The alluring Carol Hudson (Mamie Van Doren) is recruited from Detroit to entrap the vice cop. He poses as a photog; she hired as a 'date' and busted...but not before she struts her stuff in a white bathing suit.

Carol turns the tables on Brandon and charges him with entrapment and he's bounced from the force. Brandon then unbelievably goes into business himself to break Malone. One of Malone's thugs Phil Evans (Barry Atwater) lusts for Carol and when she rebuffs him repeatedly, goes after her younger, naive sister Louise (Carol Nugent).

After Phil attacks Louise, Carol decides to help Brandon bring down the racket because Malone (now her boyfriend) takes the mob's business first approach to little sister's attack.

I didn't know bad guys and cops still used tommy guns in 1960. Movie lacks any real seediness, looks like a bunch of air brushed gals right out of the men's mags of the day, doing a little fun modeling on the side for some randy clients. No hint of abuse, no booze, or drugs. Only hint of realism is innocent Louise being attacked by the creepy Phil.

Of course, the bad mob boss loses, Carol is exonerated since she helped and good cop Brandon she's both Carol and little sister Louise happily off as we reach the end. Only Mamie, clad mostly in form fitting white makes this one watchable.

This is not the best Edward L Cahn's film, unlike GUNS GIRLS AND GANGSTERSa, also starring Mamie Van Doren, but with Lee Van Cleef and Gerald Mohr, a film far more interesting, taut, tough than this predictable and tepid one. Brad Dexter is excellent as the mob leader but that's all. The overall atmosphere of a US noir movie is OK, for,moviegoers more or less craving for Mamie Van Doren, and I know this poor man's Jane Mansfield has a fan club all over the world, even now, eighty or at least seventy years old fans. It is shown as a kind of expose crime drama, with an off voice, but I repeat: everything is predictable here; the good cops and gorgeous moll against the evil syndicate...No, really, I prefered GUNS, GIRLS AND GANGSTERS. Even Sam Katzman's movies as a producer, with Fred Sears as a director were better than this one.

Vice Raid (1960)

** (out of 4)

Crime boss Vince Malone (Brad Dexter) deals in various illegal activities but prostitution is his number one money maker. The only problem is vice squad member Whitey Brandon (Richard Coogan) who will stop at nothing to bring him down. Malone gets the idea of sending in a beautiful woman named Carol (Mamie Van Doren) to get Brandon kicked off the force but once off the force he finds more ways to get to the underground. VICE RAID is like many crime pictures from this era as it features the "Dragnet" type narration and a story that doesn't throw too many twists. In fact, the entire story pretty much plays out just like you'd expect it to and the lack of any real drama or tension keeps it from being much better than it could have been. The best thing about the picture is that it contains some rather frank dialogue involving teenage girls being abused by these smut magazines and the lowdown of prostitution is also talked about rather freely. The performances are another plus with Coogan doing a nice job in the role of the vice squad leader who finds himself on the wrong side of the law. I thought Coogan was quite believable in the part and made for a good heavy. Dexter was also quite good as the bad guy and we also get nice work from Barry Atwater and Frank Gerstle. This here is probably the best I've seen Van Doren, which might not be saying too much but I thought she handled her own quite well. Carol Nugent is rather memorable in the role of the sister. The biggest problem is certainly the screenplay but director Edward L. Cahn never adds any energy or life to the picture. In the end, VICE RAID is a decent crime picture but there's certainly nothing about it that makes it a must see.