Crime & Punishment, USA

"Crime & Punishment, USA" updates Fyodor Dostoevsky novel to the 20th century and transports it from Saint Petersburg to Los Angeles. It wasn't the first film to do so, with a 1956 French adaptation and, before that, the American "Fear" (1946) is a "Crime and Punishment" picture in all but name; plus, another 1959 reworking also from France, Robert Bresson's "Pickpocket," took even more liberties with the text that it's, nonetheless, clearly inspired by. I'm not opposed to loose reworkings in the transmutation from prose to picture; indeed, "Pickpocket" is my favorite Dostoevsky film. Especially for a poor production such as this American counterpart, updating and transporting a narrative in adaptation makes a lot of economic sense. Moreover, it may lead to some interesting reinterpretations of the source that make it more relatable to modern times. Asking a low-budget 1959 film to adequately transcribe, say, the criticism of Russian nihilism from Dostoevsky's 19th century is a tall order and equally so for a general 1959 audience to understand. This film acknowledges that; plus, at least, it's evident that the filmmakers comprehended Dostoyevsky's story. Cleverly, they replaced the radicalism of Dostoevsky's era with some from their own--the Beat Generation.

Like Dostoevsky's protagonist Raskolnikov, the film's Robert murders a pawnbroker based on his philosophizing about his own supposed superiority (including in an article he penned), thus allowing him to flaunt the law in pursuit of allegedly benefiting humanity at large. Both characters' beliefs are of the sort of atheistic and counter-cultural order mocked by the conservative Dostoevsky. Thus, we see Robert play the bongos and even tap on his coffee cup before that. He doesn't wear turtlenecks and a fedora like a stereotypical beatnik, but I sense he thinks he's hip smoking a pipe instead of cigarettes like any upstanding 1950s American would. He's also unconcerned when the picture's Sonya type, renamed "Sally," admits her sexual promiscuity, but is upset with her prostitution because it's a self-sacrificing act that goes against his hedonistic thinking. A young George Hamilton looks the part, too. And, to top it off, we get a jazzy score.

I also like what is done with the Svidrigaïlov character, renamed "Fred." He's more vital here to Robert's redemption, unintended as it may be, whereas Sonya's "hooker with a heart of gold" was the underlying force behind that of Raskolnikov. Fortunately, Fred isn't the usual movie heavy as his counterpart was in the 1935 American adaptation, either. In the book, I found him to be one of the more amusing characters, and so he is here. I'm less fond of what is done with Sally. She's also something of a beatnik--what with the book of non-traditional spirituality in her room. She even sleeps with Robert right after he confessed the murder to her. She initially suggests that he turn himself in, but as quickly gives up on the idea. As with other adaptations, time is also given to the inspector interrogating the murderer, which is fairly well done here, although the 1935 French version remains probably my favorite handling of this character dynamic.

Unfortunately, the poor production values also lead to this appearing largely as a filmed play, with characters mostly talking in cramped flats. We don't see too much of Robert's Los Angeles, and he only briefly mentions the sort of wandering throughout the city that Raskolnikov did to consume much of the novel's substantial length. We also don't see the murder. And some of the sound effects are poorly done. Nevertheless, it does that one important thing right in updating its source to the Beat Generation. It's far from the best but also far from the worst version of the book I've seen.

George Hamilton stars with Marian Seldes and Mary Murphy in "Crime and Punishment USA," an adaptation of the novel by Dostoevsky, directed by Denis Sanders.

The film "introduces" George Hamilton.

Hamilton plays a young man who kills and robs a pawnbroker and later comes up against a smart police detective (Frank Silvera) who preys on his conscience.

The only other version of this I've seen is the Peter Lorre one from 1935 and as you might guess, this film doesn't compare, and comparing George Hamilton to Peter Lorre - well, it can't be done.

One thing both films have in common is that they were done cheaply, and both in black and white. The black and white serves both films very well. It made the places in this film look kind of low-class and gritty.

The atmosphere was really the only thing I liked. The music was very loud and had those screeching trumpets one always heard in the '50s and '60s in films.

I also thought everyone acted somewhat inappropriately. It's possible it all happened in the other film, but it was either done better or I just don't recall it.

When a man admits to killing someone, what would make a woman suddenly decide she wants to sleep with him? Especially after an uncomfortable scene where he yelled at her and acted rather weirdly.

Hamilton would be talking and suddenly start shouting -- it seemed like the emotions in this film came on suddenly with no build-up.

It was interesting to see such a young Marian Seldes as Hamilton's sister. She was a stage actress and teacher, married at one time to Garson Kanin. She died last year.

I saw George Hamilton in "La Cage aux Folles" a few years ago. He's done a great job of marketing his personality, and he obviously has a sense of humor, but he didn't register much, and he co-starred with an excellent Broadway performer, which made him look worse. I don't think in films he was a horrible actor, just not that great.

So that's Crime and Punishment U. S. A.

This is a well written script based on Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment." I think it is essentially a remake of a French film, with Jean Gabin,called "Crime and Punishment," later changed to "The Most Dangerous Sin," made around the same time. At any rate, self- justification, remorse, rationalization, guilt, and Truth are the subjects at hand. Each is handled slowly, without emphasis; the viewer is expected to bring much to the picture. This explains the films lower ratings. Hamilton, as an actor, is weak, others have been reminded of Tony Perkins. He was too handsome, and wasn't smart enough to use make up or a cheap haircut to make himself appear to be the poor student of his role. But, the real star is Frank Silvera, who underplays the cagey Detective, and is a joy to watch in action. He toys with Hamilton, who, unfortunately, just isn't his match (as an actor.) Marian Seldes plays Hamilton's long suffering sister.

I haven't seen this movie for more years than I care to remember. It was released accompanied by sensationalistic contemporary tag lines -- "Beatniks! Rebels!" -- partly because George Hamilton is seen playing the bongos once in a while. Yet, it has stuck in my memory. It really was an unusual film.

First of all, Dostoyevsky is rather awkwardly superimposed on a story involving residents of modern L.A. The novel doesn't quite fit on the setting. People have serious conversations about God and the afterlife. Okay for a 19th-cntury Rusian novel -- but sunny California? Home of the Fountain of the World Cult?

And it always bothered me about the novel that everyone in Petersberg seems to be acquainted with everyone else. It was a bit difficult to swallow that proposition in the novel; it is absolutely impossible for that to have been true in L.A. circa 1960, the most anomic community on the face of the planet. But instead of being an irritation, the lack of fit between the plot and its contemporary setting lends the film an unquiet, almost surreal quality. Something is off kilter and we don't know exactly what. We squirm with bemusement.

Two points ought to be made. The movie must have been shot on the cheap. In this case, it inadvertently helps. We are given a tour of the seedier sections of L.A. -- railroad tracks, refuse dumps, shabby housing -- that a better-funded film would probably have avoided. Instead of Echo Park we get a slum. This is commonplace now, but it wasn't at the time. It's too bad nobody in California seems to know what a genuine slum looks like. Here it's all a sun-drenched, palm-fronded, flower-strewn paradise, however desecrated. They should have set it in Newark. And they needn't have used high-key lighting so consistently. It looks like an early television sitcom.

Second, the acting is actually quite good. I am even willing to forgive George Hamilton's handsomeness. (He's always been willing to poke fun at himself anyway.) Mary Murphy is not the young naif she played in "The Wild One." She's not exactly a hooker either, as she was in the novel. In 1960 neither audiences nor agents of social control were prepared for that. But she is a serious kind of easy lay, which was still saying a lot. Best of all is Frank Silvera. The smooth admirable way in which he insinuates himself into Robert's life. The cat and mouse repartee. The wondering expression on his face, his amazement that Hamilton has not yet caught on, as he tells him who committed the murder -- "Why YOU did, Robert."

I don't know how I would respond to the movie now, lo, these many years later. But, crude as it is, it's not just a shoddy ripoff of a famous psychological drama. It would be a mistake to think so. If all the elements of the film are amateurish, as in a high school play, the people involved seem to be hitting the right notes by accident. This is worth catching, a real curiosity.

Actually more like the previous years' COMPULSION than a modernization of Fyodor Dostoevsky's CRIME AND PUNISHMENT... although that's exactly what it is, by title, and if Frank Silvera's friendly, complimenting homicide detective is reminiscent of the 1970's TV-cop COLUMBO, both are based on the same literary character...

And ironically, George Hamilton became a victim-of-persuasion from both determined constables and here, resembling Anthony Perkins with the combined personalities of either COMPULSION killer... broodingly into Atheist philosophy while acting too good for everyone, in particular the earthy lawman... he's more aimless than guilt-ridden...

The grainy-B&W Los Angeles-set sequences between Hamilton's Robert and the affable yet clinging detective are no different in tone than existential conversations with deep-thinking heart-of-gold-hooker Mary Murphy, his best buddy (Wayne Heffney) or his sister's middle-aged fiance (seeming straight from an Actor's Studio workshop)... yet the overall stagey aspect's so upfront and natural, CRIME feels more intriguing than meandering...

And while never claiming to be a thriller, it's no melodrama either, fitting within a kind of Beatnik's soulless journey that... between the genuine street thug film noirs and the colorful counter-culture neo noirs... exists within the sharpened jazz-soaked cinema of the late 1950's, as unappreciated now as it was back then.