New York confidentiel

Russell Rouse is well versed in this sort of material, his most notable writing credit being the excellent 'D.0.A'. His collaboration with producer/writer Clarence Greene has again turned up trumps in what to this viewer at any rate is a surprisingly effective piece. Rouse doesn't hang about here. His direction is taut, the dialogue snappy and Grant Whytock's editing is crisp. There are some truly marvellous types on display notably Richard Conte as a well-tailored and well-mannered assassin who has what his boss refers to as 'real class' which seems to be the ultimate accolade in the world of the Hoodlum. Lupo, his syndicate boss who believes that everyone has a price and if they don't, bump them off, is played by Broderick Crawford. What on earth can one say about this actor? A larger than life character whose meatiest roles, with the exception of the conman in Fellini's 'Il Bidone', were behind him but who never ceased to be great value, drunk or sober! He is gifted the best line here when exclaiming: "what a bunch of lousy crooks!" Definitely an instance of the pot calling the kettle black. Good support from Mike Mazurki and inveterate scene-stealer J. Carroll Naish. THE performance to take out of this is that of the wondrous Anne Bancroft who has by far the most interesting role as Lupo's daughter. This superlative actress suffered at the time from being typecast and her film career was going nowhere. Luckily for her and for us it was playwright William Gibson and director Arthur Penn who came to her rescue when she was given the chance to reprise on film her Tony award-winning performance in 'The Miracle Worker', for which she received a much deserved Oscar. As for the subject matter we have been here before with assorted low-lifes, shady lawyers, politicians on the take, dames who know which side their bread is buttered and the dubious, morally ambiguous code of honour which demands that one lives and dies 'by the rules'. Not to mention the sweet old Italian mamma who laments: "All dis a shooting and a hiding. Justa like de old days." This is all contained however within a well-paced, well-acted film which grips from first to last.

This is Richard Conte's role of a lifetime. He makes the most of it. The story of the syndicate in the US, and what happens when some of its machine parts are damaged is a riveting film. Broderick Crawford and his mother, however, are about as Italian as I am Norweigan. Both very fine actors in their own right, Crawford is miscast here as an Italian mobster, whereas Conte is letter-perfect. And even though Crawford is miscast as an Eye-Talian, he is still, nevertheless, extremely entertaining, and always fun to watch.

. Anne Bancroft is outstanding in one of her earliest film appearances; and this film helped launch her highly successful career. The film is a notch above the average gangster flick, and the mechanisms used by the syndicate are cold-blooded and efficient. A really good hood movie.

Broderick Crawford borrows a great deal from his Academy Award winning Willie Stark from All The King's Men in playing underworld boss Frank Lupo in New York Confidential. Crawford is a combination of Stark and Don Corleone and he doesn't get the best of it.

Like Corleone and Stark, Lupo has trouble with his children, but unlike Stark, Lupo has a daughter played by Anne Bancroft. Now if Bancroft was content to be Connie Corleone she could have any number of willing suitors who are in the family business working for dad. She aspires to more and her father's reputation kills off any chance she can marry respectably.

Not that respectability guarantees honesty. When old line money WASP William Forrest pulls the rug out from under a multi-million dollar deal the Syndicate is bankrolling they decide to take care of him in the true Syndicate manner. Crawford though he opposes the idea gets the contract and from their the dominoes start to fall.

One thing however when the fires threatens, organized crime knows how to start backfires to make sure the organization itself is not touched. A whole lot of dead bodies start to pile up before the film ends.

Also starring in the film is Richard Conte playing an out of town hit man who Crawford takes a shine to and has him stay in New York. Conte was always great in noir films and he certainly is here.

New York Confidential touches upon a lot of the issues involving systemic corruption much the same way The Godfather films do. Of course it does not have the budget those blockbusters had nor an unforgettable music score, still New York Confidential makes it point. It's still a valid film for today's audience.

NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL is a perplexing film noir entry. Among its many merits is the astonishing cast: Broderick Crawford (who spits out his dialogue in Howard Hawks-rapidity as if he were on amphetamines), Anne Bancroft (astonishing) and the always reliable Richard Conte. But it never shakes the feeling of being two films in one, sitting uneasily side by side: a stern "semi-documentary" expose of the "syndicate" on one hand, and a bleak and brutal pre-Godfather mafia family saga on the other.

As such, it is wildly and tragically uneven. The leads all turn in brilliant performances, but the screenplay has all the earmarks of a committee job; fascinating ideas and characterizations butt up against terribly overwrought clichés. The main cast is on fire with weighty dialogue, but the supporting cast flounders about as if they were in the most pedestrian B-noir instead of a star-driven studio picture. For the most part, the design is static and lifeless, shot with little flair by Eddie Fitzgerald. Director and co-writer Russell Rouse's previous noir entry was the chancy THE THIEF, also an uneven experiment.

But the film has its scenes of incredible power, usually those revolving around Conte, as a cold and calculating hit-man for hire, and Bancroft, as the put-upon mobster's daughter who can't crawl out from behind dad's shadow; Conte dispatching with "hits", his gunshots creepily muffled by a silencer; Crawford's repeated near-meltdowns; murderous planning done completely straight in a corporate boardroom, just big business as usual.

A puzzler of a film, leaving the viewer to wonder what could have been, had it been shot by John Alton and penned by, say, Dalton Trumbo. Still, it's an extremely valuable entry in the film noir canon, strangely almost impossible to see.

Richard Rouse's New York Confidential is a fine movie. It feels realistic and genuine. It's portrayal of the mafia seems more sophisticated than the movies that came before it. It's a very good screenplay, easy to follow but plausible and with plenty of twists. It is a real pleasure watching the three stars at work. Broderick Crawford is great playing ... Broderick Crawford, showing power, bluster, urgency and frailty all at the same time. Richard Conte and Anne Bancroft are possibly even better, Conte exuding confidence, charm and self-control and Bancroft making us feel the desperation of being trapped inside a mafia clan. I applaud the producers and director for choosing to use only a few Italian American actors in a film about the mafia - only Conte, Bancroft and a few minor players - as it shifts the focus from the ethnic aspects to the business itself and the individual choices each of the criminals makes.