New York Confidential

Flawed but always worth watching, this movie seems to have sprung from nowhere onto DVD. Certainly not pure 'noir' but neither is it simply a crime drama. Indeed with the documentary element and Crawford's wayward antics on the one side and the coolness of Richard Conte and his relations with the ladies on the other, this could be considered a bit of a mess. That it is not is due in the main to the tremendous performances of Conte, Bancroft and to a lesser extent, Marilyn Maxwell as Iris, Crawford's mistress. For me Crawford is over the top as the macho boss man and simply unable to deal with the more sensitive scenes, but he is overshadowed by Conte and we are soon persuaded to view the events through his steely eyes. A few location shots that really only go to show up the shoddiness of the studio ones but there is a great ending and as I say enough along the way to make this almost unseen film well worth a watch.

That's the third or fourth time I see this authentic and unfortunately underrated film noir from the fifties. A true fierce, brutal, and so realistic tale of gangsters where the mob is presented as a big company and their members normal family men, such as Broderick - machine gun talking - Crawford, who is here at his best. So is Richard Conte, here as a cold, ruthless but also attractive killer. Many movie buffs speak of the GODFATHER when they present this feature. Yes, they are not wrong. If you compare with the other gangsters films made before, this one is rather close to the Francis Coppola's films. This movie is for me a little masterpiece, far better than more known gangster movies. Russel Rouse was also a damn good director. I have seen all his films, which I also have in my huge library. I confound this movie with Ken Hughes's JOE MACBETH, made at the same period, and starring Paul Douglas who, a long time ago, I confounded with Broderick Crawford. This another film noir was also a gangster family tragedy. Like this one.

A good cast is the highlight of "New York Confidential" from 1955.

The film stars Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, Anne Bancroft, Marilyn Maxwell, J. Carroll Naish, Mike Mazurki, and Celia Lovsky.

Crawford plays Lupo, the big mob ruler of New York, who lives with his daughter (Bancroft) and mother (Lovsky). He has no problem ordering hits on people - for one hit, the mob brings in Nick Magellen (Conte) from Chicago. He's successful, and Lupo offers him a permanent position in the syndicate. Nick quickly becomes essential to the operation.

Bancroft hates what her father does and does what she can to get away from him.

This is a story of evil corrupting itself, until no one is safe. There is no loyalty when it comes to protecting the mob and its secrets. Everyone is expendable.

Good movie, strong performances.

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.

It has been quite a long while since I've seen this film. Yet even though it has been at least 30 years since I last saw this movie it stands out as one of my favorite films. I have never been able to find it on VHS and it is just never shown on television. I can't understand why Turner Classic Movies hasn't shown it because it is definitely a classic film noir gem. But it is more than film noir; it is a genuine motif of organized crime brought to the screen. The cast is excellent as far as talent goes. Broderick Crawford, Richard Conte, and Ann Bancroft just being in the cast should merit it being shown on TV once in awhile.

One of the central themes of achieving success and the American dream through crime and corruption is an old staple of Hollywood, but it is presented in such a way as to provide the viewer with a definite amount of empathy for the main characters in spite of the fact that they are mobsters. It is entertaining and interesting without a lot of violence and since it was released in 1955, no profanity. In my mind I rate it along with another film of the same genre that was released some 12 years later titled "The Brotherhood" starring Kirk Douglas. I just wish I could get this film on VHS, DVD, or television. I would greatly appreciate any help anyone could give me in that endeavor.