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The Phenix City Story

  • 1955
  • Approved
  • 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
3.5K
YOUR RATING
The Phenix City Story (1955)
DocudramaFilm NoirTrue CrimeCrimeDrama

A crime-busting lawyer and his initially reluctant attorney father take on the forces that run gambling and prostitution in their small Southern town.A crime-busting lawyer and his initially reluctant attorney father take on the forces that run gambling and prostitution in their small Southern town.A crime-busting lawyer and his initially reluctant attorney father take on the forces that run gambling and prostitution in their small Southern town.

  • Director
    • Phil Karlson
  • Writers
    • Crane Wilbur
    • Daniel Mainwaring
  • Stars
    • John McIntire
    • Richard Kiley
    • Kathryn Grant
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    3.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Phil Karlson
    • Writers
      • Crane Wilbur
      • Daniel Mainwaring
    • Stars
      • John McIntire
      • Richard Kiley
      • Kathryn Grant
    • 60User reviews
    • 34Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 1 win & 1 nomination total

    Photos19

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    Top cast33

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    John McIntire
    John McIntire
    • Albert L. 'Pat' Patterson
    Richard Kiley
    Richard Kiley
    • John Patterson
    Kathryn Grant
    Kathryn Grant
    • Ellie Rhodes
    Edward Andrews
    Edward Andrews
    • Rhett Tanner
    Lenka Peterson
    Lenka Peterson
    • Mary Jo Patterson
    Biff McGuire
    Biff McGuire
    • Fred Gage
    Truman Smith
    • Ed Gage
    Jean Carson
    Jean Carson
    • Cassie
    Kathy Marlowe
    • Mamie
    • (as Katharine Marlowe)
    John Larch
    John Larch
    • Clem Wilson
    Allen Nourse
    • Jeb Bassett
    James Edwards
    James Edwards
    • Zeke Ward
    Helen Martin
    Helen Martin
    • Helen Ward
    Otto Hulett
    Otto Hulett
    • Hugh Bentley
    George Mitchell
    George Mitchell
    • Hugh Britton
    Ma Beachie
    • Ma Beachie
    James E. Seymour
    • James E. Seymour
    Clete Roberts
    Clete Roberts
    • Clete Roberts
    • Director
      • Phil Karlson
    • Writers
      • Crane Wilbur
      • Daniel Mainwaring
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews60

    7.23.4K
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    Featured reviews

    8bkoganbing

    Not Even With Chicago And Al Capone

    I'm surprised that more people are not aware of this story which climaxed with no less than the murder of the Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Alabama at the time when said nomination was tantamount to election. That the election of Albert Patterson scared the local criminal syndicate into that kind of move is almost unprecedented. The only other example I can think of something like this occurring was in the early years of the last century when Special Prosecutor Francis J. Heney was shot and wounded while he was investigated the corrupt city machine in San Francisco.

    After a brief documentary introduction by CBS news reporter Clete Roberts of actual Phenix City residents, the story begins with the Pattersons, father John McIntire and son Richard Kiley getting reluctantly involved in the fight to clean up their town which is notorious for being a wide open cesspool of vice and corruption. It's pointed out that Phenix City is across from Columbus, Georgia and thirty minutes from Fort Benning. A certain amount of vice and corruption will inevitably settle there in towns that cater to the military and the pleasures the service people will seek off duty.

    But Phenix City has gotten way out of hand and it's become a state embarrassment to the people of Alabama. Which is why John McIntire wins that primary leading the way to the unheard of events that followed. Let's just say that what happens here was contemplated, but never done in Chicago during the days of Al Capone.

    The cast also includes Kathryn Grant as a young woman working as an informer in one of the clubs, Lenka Patterson as Kiley's loyal, but concerned wife, Edward Andrews and John Larch as brains and muscle behind the syndicate. It also includes James Edwards and Helen Martin whose child is killed when Edwards helps Kiley. With I might add the appropriate feeling one might have for a small black girl in Alabama of the Fifties.

    After the action of this film John Patterson took his dad's place as Attorney General and did put an end to the corruption of Phenix City. In 1958 he ran for Governor and won, but contrary to what you might think ran on a strict segregationist platform. His main primary opponent taking the more moderate racial position was George C. Wallace. That never happened again, Wallace saw to that.

    And Patterson is still alive and in 2008 was a supporter of Barack Obama for president. Truth can really be stranger than fiction.

    The Phenix City Story is a hard hitting, pulling no punches documentary style of a family's fight against corruption. Try to see it when next broadcast.
    7claudio_carvalho

    Different and Violent Film-Noir

    In the 1940s and 1950s in Alabama, the notorious Phenix City is a town ruled by the organized crime and prostitution and gambling are the main economical activities. The police department is corrupt and the criminal Rhett Tanner (Edward Andrews) is the big boss. When the famous lawyer Albert "Pat" L. Patterson (John McIntire) welcomes his son John Patterson (Richard Kiley) that has just returned from Germany with his wife and children, he intends to keep his calm life in a neutral position and work with his son. However, there are serious and violent incidents and Albert Patterson accepts to run the elections to become the Attorney General of Alabama to clean Phenix City. He wins the election but is shot when he is leaving his office and dies. Now John seeks revenge but using the law instead of violence.

    "The Phenix City Story" is a different and violent film-noir based on the true story of the assassination of Albert "Pat" L. Patterson. The film has great performances and the violence is impressive for a 1955 Hollywood film. The beginning with the documentary style is boring, but after the initial credits, the film becomes great. In the end, this story proves that one person can make the difference in a story of a country. My vote is seven.

    Title (Brazil): "Cidade do Vício" ("City of the Vicious")
    7SnoopyStyle

    Ripped from the headlines

    Phenix City, Alabama is a corrupt city of sin bringing lowlifes and soldiers from the neighboring base. Journalist Clete Roberts presents the murder of Albert Patterson presumably by mobster Rhett Tanner who has control of the corrupted government and police. Patterson is the Democrat nominee for Alabama Attorney General tasked with cleaning up the city. The heart of the movie is the amiable respected lawyer Albert Patterson being recruited to run for the post as violence mounts against the good people of the city.

    This is a ripped-from-the-headlines story. It starts with a documentary style prologue like a real news report. Although it has documentary style and real life story, many parts of this is fictional. Nevertheless, there is real tension. It starts a little muddled but the tension does rise as the unrelenting violence mount. It has brutality that is beyond cinematic. Even women and children are beaten. The callousness of the corrupt police is just as brutal. It probably needs to give the father son relationship more screen time. It needs to develop the story better. Overall, there are some memorable scenes and it is an unique film.
    dougdoepke

    B-Movie Gem

    Sometimes rush jobs really work out, like Phenix City Story. Consider that the movie was scripted, shot, and processed in less than a year after the triggering event of Patterson's murder. Credit the producers or someone for coming up with a first-rate cast, a marvelous director, and a big enough budget for location filming in the actual Phenix City. The result is the best of the "city expose" movies so popular at the time.

    There's a rawness to the violence here that's more convincing than usual, in part because of director Karlson's "feel" for the material and also because it appears to grow organically out of the seedy surroundings of honky-tonks and carousing soldiers on leave from Fort Benning. Credit too the fine, underrated Edward Andrews for blending oily charm with ruthless violence, just the qualities needed to run an operation of that sort. Kiley too delivers in spades, his rage unusually intense and realistic. The only questionable note is Katherine Grant's Ellie, seemingly too sweet and naïve for a dealer in a crooked set-up.

    Getting Karlson was a real coup. He was just hitting his stride as a top crime drama director during this period. His staging of the little girl's murder is a real grabber, along with the parking lot beating. In fact, the movie has an unusually pervasive atmosphere of unrestrained evil. Credit should also go to screenwriter Dan Mainwaring for a good tight script and some timely notes on the downside of vigilantism. Apparently, the lengthy prologue was added to ease censorship concerns, and, aside from historical value, can easily be skipped.

    Anyway, the film's a must-see for B-movie fans, a happy coming together of a number of underrated Hollywood talents.
    8non_sportcardandy

    From the mind of an 8 year old

    Born in 1946 I was about eight years old when first viewing this movie and it left a deep impression.Not only scary ,for lack of a better word this movie haunted me for more than 50 years.The mob goon played by John Larch was terrifying.The only scene that stuck out in my mind during those 50 years was the killing of the little girl and the uncaring policeman referring to her as a "little n----- kid".Those words were replaced when the movie was shown recently on TV,maybe there are two versions of the movie or someone felt compelled to alter a little bit this heart breaking scene.Accurate or not the film went a long way in formulating my opinion of the South and still till today the closest I've come to visiting a southern city is El Paso.That stand may seem extreme but there is a little bit more to the story.When the movie was shown recently it became clearer why it haunted me for years.With the newsreel like beginning this movie gives the impression that what is being shown is fact.The film is made supposedly only one or two years after the depicted incidents adding to its realistic credibility.The terror in the movie isn't provided by creatures or space aliens but by persons living in our society at the time.Re killing of little girl:The recent viewing helped make clearer the impact it had on my 8 year old mind.When this movie came out the only school I had ever gone to was attended by mostly African-Americans.The victim looked like a girl in my class,it was like seeing an actual killing.It made a horrible scene that much worse.Maybe no one will find this review helpful but it helped me.

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    Related interests

    Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network (2010)
    Docudrama
    Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946)
    Film Noir
    Lee Norris and Ciara Moriarty in Zodiac (2007)
    True Crime
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    Crime
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    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      In the film, John Patterson (Richard Kiley) is depicted as supportive of African-American Zeke Ward (James Edwards) and his family. In real life, following his term as Alabama attorney general (1954-58), Patterson ran for governor in 1958 in an openly racist campaign and won. One of his opponents, George Wallace, had run as a racial moderate and told his friends after the election, "John Patterson out-niggered me, and I'm never gonna be out-niggered again." Four years later, in 1962, Wallace won the governorship of Alabama as an avowed segregationist.
    • Goofs
      A moving shadow of the boom microphone can be seen on the wall above the promotion poster after the fight in the alley scene.
    • Quotes

      Albert L. Patterson: Rhett, I'm not stickin' my neck out. Why should I? Phenix City has been what it is for 80, 90 years. Who am I to try to reform it?

    • Alternate versions
      The initial release version ran 87 minutes, but soon after, a 13-minute "newsreel" preface was added and an epilogue, read by Richard Kiley. The real John Patterson used this film as campaign too when he ran for Governor of Alabama (beating the young George Wallace). Patterson filmed the same epilogue as Kiley, and Patterson's version was used when the film played in Alabama.
    • Connections
      Featured in Moviedrome: The Phenix City Story (1990)
    • Soundtracks
      Phenix City Blues
      Music and Lyrics by Harold Spina

      Sung by Meg Myles

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    FAQ18

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • July 19, 1955 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Eine Stadt geht durch die Hölle
    • Filming locations
      • Phenix City, Alabama, USA
    • Production company
      • Bischoff-Diamond Corporation
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 40m(100 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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