Main Street After Dark

While boasting "more stars than there are in heaven" MGM was not terribly stellar when it came to making crime pictures. This is a somewhat clunky example of that shortfall, but still worth an hour of your time.

What's interesting about Main Street After Dark is its noirish view of the American home front during World War II, made when the war was still going on.

No Andy Hardy-like coziness here. Main Street in this burg is teeming with pickpockets and pattyrollers (whatever those are) all eager to bamboozle the boys in uniform before they ship out.

All in all, it's a surprisingly gritty take on the seamy side of wartime America, enlivened by the screen debut of Audrey Totter, who plays-what else?-one tough dame.

It's a typical wartime home: service star in the window, family sitting quietly in the living room. The door bell rings. It's a a telegram. There's tension. Tom Trout is coming home! They discuss what food there'll be and argue over who gets to cook it. After all, it's not everyday that Tom gets out of prison!

Selena Royle is the mother of the brood, with Dan Duryea as the other son; Audrey Trotter (in her screen debut) is Trotter's wife, and there's little Dorothy Morris to round out the clan. Police lieutenant Edward Arnold never seems far away, urging Trotter to keep out of trouble, mentioning that the farms are short-handed Mostly, though, this movie is hanging around, waiting for the boys to do something dangerous and get collared. With less than an hour to do it in, it doesn't take long.

A great opening scene and Arnold playing one of his chuckling characters keeps this one good. Otherwise, it looks like an expanded entry in the Crime Does Not Pay series.

This film is about a family of scum and a cop, Lt. Lorrgan (Edward Arnold) who knows that they are scum and hopes to catch them! It seems that the Dibson family would rather make money picking pockets and rolling drunks instead of working and one of the sons, Lucky, is coming home from prison. He's learned nothing from his incarceration and plans on going right back to his crooked ways....just like his mother, brother, sister and Lucky's wife.

Up until the end, I fully intended to give this one a 7...or possibly and 8. MGM Made an awfully good B-movie...that is, up until the end. Just a few minutes from the end of the film, the Lieutenant goes to the Dibson family home to look for the sons. However, Ma doesn't want him arresting her sons, so she pulls a gun on the cop. He's able to get it away from her and only a minute or so later, the sons arrive. Now, remember, Ma just threatened to kill the cop with a gun...and no one is paying attention to her and she, once again, grabs a gun!! Now, no cop could be THAT stupid...and Arnold's character didn't seem dumb at all up until then. I think the director just wanted to wrap the film up and keep it B-movie length....and Bs were supposed to be inexpensive...so they just filmed this contrived portion instead of coming up with some better ending!

Main Street After Dark (1945)

** (out of 4)

Edward L. Cahn directed this drama about a family a pickpockets who prey on sailors at a local bar. Cahn directed several of the "Crime Does Not Pay" entries for MGM and I'm going to guess this 57-minute film was meant to be an extended version of that. Sadly there isn't too much going in this film and comes off rather dull in the end. The storyline never really takes off even though there's an impressive cast including Edward Arnold, Selena Royle, Audrey Totter and Hume Cronyn.

This one shows up on Turner Classic Movies ever couple of years.

From the outside, the Gibsons are an all-American suburban family. In reality, it's a den of thieves. Ma Dibson is trading with crooked pawn dealer Keller (Hume Cronyn). His son Lefty gets released from prison. Her daughter Rosalie and daughter-in-law Jessie Belle dance with and steal from servicemen. Posey is her other thieving son. Lt. Lorrgan keeps a close eye on family and offers Lefty a farm job milking cows.

This is an one hour movie that plays more like a Crime Does Not Pay short. It's also possibly a warning for soldiers on leave. That seems to be part of the war effort. The acting is pulpy good especially sassy Audrey Totter. I am surprised to see Hume Cronyn who dons a bald cap to look like his older self although I don't think he ever got that bald. I like the family although I wish their thieving is more imaginative and dangerous.