Main Street After Dark

Main Street After Dark starts out like a big city Shadow of A Doubt, takes a brief turn into Arsenic and Old Lace territory, and then spends it's last half hour playing out as an expanded edition of MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series. It's vaguely unsatisfying but features a stellar cast and has moments of noir sensibility. There are many worse ways to spend a mere 57 minutes of time.

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.

Edward Arnold is a police lieutenant prowling Main Street After Dark invthis 1945 film also starring Selena Royle, Dan Duryea, Hume Cronyn, Audrey Totter, and Dorothy Morris. Directed by Edward L. Cahn.

Royle heads up a family gang of thieves, the Dibsons, and Cronyn is Keller, their pawnbroker. The big excitement in the family is that Lefty (Trout) is being released from prison. His wife Jessie (Totter) would be happier, but she seems to be in competition with her mother-in-law who takes charge of his welcoming.

The family's major concentration is on ripping off soldiers coming through town with wage packets, so none of them are very likable. And though Lefty is warned by his mother not to carry a gun, he does.

This is a more sophisticated Ma Barker group as they sit around the radio listening to - police scans instead of Jack Benny.

Audrey Totter is great in her debut.

This is supposed to be light-hearted but I felt sorry for the soldiers.

This film is about a family of scum and a cop, Lt. Lorrgan (Edward Arnold) who knows that they are scum and hopes to catch them! It seems that the Dibson family would rather make money picking pockets and rolling drunks instead of working and one of the sons, Lucky, is coming home from prison. He's learned nothing from his incarceration and plans on going right back to his crooked ways....just like his mother, brother, sister and Lucky's wife.

Up until the end, I fully intended to give this one a 7...or possibly and 8. MGM Made an awfully good B-movie...that is, up until the end. Just a few minutes from the end of the film, the Lieutenant goes to the Dibson family home to look for the sons. However, Ma doesn't want him arresting her sons, so she pulls a gun on the cop. He's able to get it away from her and only a minute or so later, the sons arrive. Now, remember, Ma just threatened to kill the cop with a gun...and no one is paying attention to her and she, once again, grabs a gun!! Now, no cop could be THAT stupid...and Arnold's character didn't seem dumb at all up until then. I think the director just wanted to wrap the film up and keep it B-movie length....and Bs were supposed to be inexpensive...so they just filmed this contrived portion instead of coming up with some better ending!

Too bad that more work and fine tuning wasn't put into this film. What you get is a mildly entertaining programmer about a family of pickpockets harassed by a police lieutenant who could be held partly responsible for the murder that takes place during a robbery. Even the title is misleading. with a title like "Main street After Dark," one would expect to see either a film noir or a "Naked City" type docudrama. Instead we get a "Crime Does Not Pay" type package that plays too much like a stage presentation, especially for the first thirty minutes. That's not to take away from an intriguing story, acted out by a stellar cast. One of the reviewers for IMDb mixes up the family, although the review itself is excellent. The family consists of ma, one daughter, and two sons. Lefty is one of the sons. He is married to Jessie Belle.