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.

This film belongs to the first part of Edward L Cahn's career, before he drowned in grade B and even Z movies industry. This light hearted crime film made for MGM is not uninteresting for gem diggers as I am. This is a feature destined to the whole family for matinee theaters. It is short but not as sharp and brutal as a Warner Bros pictures of the same period, because this is not Ma Barker and her sons gang, another crime family scheme. And I found very amusing a scene of the whole criminal family, sitting in the living room and listening on the radio, not a song nor the news but guess what, the police messages thtru a scanner.....very unusual...

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.

MGM usually produced smoother B-films than MAIN STREET AFTER DARK, a curious item that starts out as a small-town study of crime, turns into a family melodrama about a bunch of pick-pockets and thieves, and then turns deadly serious when a murder is committed and the "crime doesn't pay" theme is attached to the unhappy ending.

SELENA ROYLE is the tough head of a crime family (in the sort of role you'd expect to find Shelley Winters) with TOM TROUT and DAN DURYEA as her criminal sons and AUDREY TOTTER as her wise-cracking daughter-in-law. The story involves girls who prey on soldiers and sailors to steal their wallets and anything else for financial gain so the profits can be turned over to the local pawnbroker (HUME CRONYN).

It's rather slow going even for a film that lasts just under an hour and leads to an obvious "crime doesn't pay" sort of conclusion.

The treatment is dated and heavy-handed with EDWARD ARNOLD in one of his least convincing roles as a detective committed to solving the series of petty crimes that eventually lead to a murder.

Summing up: You'll find the cast interesting but the plot is strictly by the numbers.