Down Three Dark Streets

FBI agent John Ripley wants to solve the murder of his partner Zack Stewart. He's digging into three of Zack's cases and hopes to find his killer. Joe Walpo is a murderous fugitive on the run. Kate Martell is being threatened and extorted by a mystery man on the phone. The last case involves a car theft ring.

This is a precursor to the modern TV police procedural. It can be a bit dry and three stories may be one too many. Of the many character actors in this film, I like Claude Akins the most. I love his scar. There is a big time location for the climax. It's great to get so close to the sign. In the end, it's an effective police drama.

While there isn't a lot of spectacular action or twists in this film, it is rock solid throughout--sort of like an episode of "Dragnet" or "The FBI". A very good script and nice attention to law enforcement details make this one worth watching.

The film begins with two FBI agents on an assignment. One is unexpectedly murdered by someone hiding in the shadows. The surviving agent (Broderick Crawford) seems to think that someone on the other agents list of open cases has done the crime, so he looks into the three cases. And so, you see Crawford go from case to case--looking for clues and solving the cases while he's at it. It all leads to a dandy final set at the Hollywood sign.

As I said above, the show is big on realism and police procedures. I also appreciated how ordinary and ugly some of the cast were--like real life. Overall, it's a lot like a tidier version of film noir--with a strong infusion of realism and good acting.

By the way, if you do watch, look for the guy with his home-made 'spy detector'!

Before J. Edgar Hoover stopped fogging mirrors in 1972 you would not see a film that did not show the Federal Bureau Of Investigation as less than dedicated and perfect. Stripping the man's paranoia away from him, Hoover did bring a certain order and professionalism to the FBI and when they stuck to crime and criminals as opposed to just amassing files on the world they did a good job. Like any other law enforcement agency when one of their own is killed in the line of duty everything stops until the perpetrator is caught.

Down These Dark Streets is one of the few films you'll see where someone who is a detective will be shown having more than one case. Indeed that is the crux of this plot. Which one of three cases did agent Kenneth Tobey get killed over by a sniper's bullet?

His supervisor Broderick Crawford takes over and the three cases are a case of an organized car theft ring where young Gene Reynolds is about to take a fall in federal prison because he won't rat out the leaders. Maybe it's notorious fugitive Joe Bassett who is armed and dangerous and who already killed a gas station attendant who rather stupidly called the FBI before Bassett was clear from his station. Or there's Ruth Roman who is being extorted for an insurance settlement by a stranger threatening her child on the phone.

Crawford takes on all three cases and systematically solves them and eliminates a lot of suspects. He's as thorough a professional as all big screen FBI men were at the time.

Take note of Martha Hyer who plays Joe Bassett's kept moll. Martha was one of the most beautiful women ever to grace the screen and here she shows some real acting chops in her scenes with Crawford.

Down Three Dark Streets is a crisp and competent police drama with a great ensemble cast. Definitely a must for noir fans.

Based on a novel by The Gordons called "Case File: F.B.I.", this is a semi-documentary style crime drama from Columbia starring BRODERICK CRAWFORD as a diligent F.B.I. agent John Ripley assigned to crack a few unsolved cases when a fellow agent on the job is killed in the line of duty.

RUTH ROMAN, MARISA PAVAN and MARTHA HYER are the three women connected to the cases, all of whom give good performances but Pavan is particularly touching as a blind woman.

The documentary style is nicely handled and there's a twist at the end that came as a real surprise to me.

Not great, but an interesting example of satisfactory film noir.

When FBI Agent Zack Stewart is killed, Agent John Ripley takes over the three cases he was working on, hoping one will lead to his killer. The first involves gangster Joe Walpo and Ripley finds his hideout through Joe's girl friend, Connie Anderson. Joe is killed but it is established he was 400 miles away when Stewart was murdered. The next involves a car-theft gang which Ripley breaks up by using one of the gang, Vince Angelino and his wife Julie. The last case involves Kate Martell, the victim of an extortionist who threatens to kidnap her child unless she pays him $10,000.

This certainly is an interesting look at FBI cases and procedures, with them using bulky equipment to spy on neighbors, intercept phone calls and make identifications. But this was the 1950s, when such things were primitive and relatively innocent. (The FBI surveillance went too far in the 1960s and was shut down by the courts.) Very interesting film, well worth being better known. And the film quality seems to have held up very nicely over the years. The one on Netflix looks great.