Nonureva Really Surprised!

Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Mark Turner In looking into this film I came across a nice description of the film, a genre I'd not actually heard of before. They termed this film neo-noir. Film noir is used to describe darker crime dramas that come out during the 40s and 50s but by the time this film arrived those had ed. Taking that same sort of crime drama and placing it into current context (at the time) placed this movie in that new category. The film is filled with crime and has that dark sensibility to it and if you enjoy films of the genre the odds are good you'll enjoy this one.The movie opens with a tough street kid named Tolly Devlin (David Kent) who witnesses the murder of his father by four thugs. Recognizing one of them he doesn't turn him in, instead vowing vengeance to the mother figure in his life, speakeasy owner Sandy (Beatrice Kay). Becoming a career criminal he first get sent to reform school but then as he gets older upgrades to safe cracking. This gets him tossed into prison where he wants to be since the man he recognized is there.Now grown (and portrayed by Cliff Robertson) he works his way into the prison hospital where he confronts the man and on his death bed learns the identities of the other 3 men involved. When he's released from prison he returns to Sandy who encourages him to go straight. She's sold her business to the new crime lord in town Earl Connors (Robert Emhardt). Tolly tells her he'll do so but has his own agenda in mind.Stealing drugs one of the men on his list, now working for Connors, deals he gets a meeting with the man. Claiming he had no idea who they belonged to he gains favor with the man and goes to work for him. While taking the drugs he rescues a woman named Cuddles (Dolores Dorn) who would have been killed had he not done so.Cuddles and Tolly are soon an item, at least in her mind. For Tolly his life is nothing but revenge. It isn't long before he creates a long term plan to take down the men who killed his father. He approaches the special investigator into organized crime, John Driscoll (Larry Gates). Driscoll was the assistant DA looking into his father's death. Now Tolly tells him he's willing to help by providing him information about the entire Connors crime organization.Playing one side against the other in this pursuit of revenge there is one thing that Tolly loses in the process, his humanity. His ion to get back at the men who killed his father is so consuming that he loses all respect for anyone, including Sandy. His treatment of Cuddles is no more chivalric than that of her tormentors in the Connors organization who eventually call for her death. The question being asked throughout the film is will Tolly carry on with his quest for revenge or instead seek redemption?The film was directed by Sam Fuller, known for his work in the genre. Fuller had no problem working outside the studio system and was well known for making solid films on a low budget that didn't seem so. The worlds he depicted were normally gritty and filled with unfeeling characters. This film fit right into the movies he was known for and along with SHOCK CORRIDOR and THE NAKED KISS have become highly regarded critically.I've always enjoyed Robertson in films I've seen him in but I wasn't prepared for his portrayal of Tolly here. Robertson always played good guys or aw shucks style characters. He holds his own here as the single minded killer with no compunction for destroying the men who killed his father no matter who gets hurt in the process. His treatment of Cuddles is cold and cruel and makes you find it difficult to sympathize with his character. His quest for revenge seems justified but his method of pursuing it leave him someone we all find hard to .The movie was an entertaining crime drama that I'm sure fans will enjoy. Twilight Time is releasing this in their usual cleaned up style with a 1080p hi def version on blu-ray. Extras here are more than the usual with an isolated music track, a short documentary SAM FULLER STORYTELLER, a reflection on the film MARTIN SCORSESE ON UNDERWORLD U.S.A. and the original theatrical trailer. As always the release is limited to just 3,000 copies so if interested order yours today.

funkyfry Sam Fuller's ambitious "Underworld U.S.A." is a focused, driven little machine of a picture with Cliff Robertson as a man intent on avenging his father, who was murdered by 5 men who eventually became mafia kingpins. In order to do so, he must first spend time in the "big house" to get the info from the one perp he identified, and then insinuate himself into the organization to track down and destroy the others. What's notable to me in the film is the way that the positive/moral characters in the film are only vaguely given much room to actually wield moral authority. For example, Sandy (Beatrice Kay), the kindly tavern owner who more or less adopts Tolly Devlin (Robertson) after his father's murder, is characterized by gigantic posters of babies on her walls and creepy looking dolls stuffed throughout her house. The police are portrayed in a positive way, but they're also showed as dupes (Devlin easily abuses the D.A.'s trust for his own revenge) and perhaps overly zealous. The film repeats propaganda tropes about young people ("age 10 to 15" as the villain specifies) becoming hooked on drugs by the mafia, much in the same way Fuller's "Pickup on South Street" scared us with the ever-present commie threat to our way of life. There's a sense that the depiction of that menace is being undermined by the film's single-minded focus on the hero's equally single- minded mission.Robertson and the rest of the cast are solid, not necessarily remarkable... it's a weird film because in some ways it more closely resembles a film from the late 40s or early 50s, but in other ways it's ahead of its time. It's a bit closer to "Death Wish" or "Point Blank" in of how little credence or attention it gives to the idea of the hero actually "going straight" or doing anything other than follow a very linear path to a gruesome ending. As such, it fits into a pattern of other late 50s/early 60s films that reached back to 30s archetypes and tried to re-invent them in more brutally deterministic (Fuller's westerns from the period follow the trend as well). There are many truly memorable scenes here -- this one deserves to be seen by a lot more people.

kenjha A juvenile delinquent witnesses the murder of his father by mobsters and seeks revenge as an adult. This is a brutal crime drama, with lively direction by Fuller, although he goes a bit overboard with shadows, closeups, and zooms. Robertson is not bad, but seems miscast as the tough guy who, driven by vengeance, singlehandedly takes on the syndicate. The best performances are turned in by the two leading actresses: Dorn (recalling Stella Stevens) as a gangster's moll and Kay (recalling Thelma Ritter) as a mother-figure for Robertson. Also notable are Rust as a ruthless mob henchman and Gates as a federal prosecutor.

helpless_dancer When a young boy witnesses the murder of his father he vows to revenge his death. After reaching manhood he s the organization that the killers preside over with the intention of fulfilling his death wish. Good action and dialogue kept this story moving right along, even though it was a little corny and the ending was predictable.