Possible Spoiler.
"The Captive City" is a tense, modest, and scarcely appreciated noir sleeper, starring John Forsythe in his debut and directed with considerable skill and panache by Robert Wise. Supporting cast is primarily NY stage troupe, including Joan Camden, Harold Kennedy, Marjorie Grossland, Victor Sutherland, and the familiar Route 66 Vet, Martin Milner. In 1951, Estes Kefauver opened hearings in Congress into organized crime. This film, about an ambitious and crusading newspaper editor Jim (Forsythe) and his discovery of crime and corruption in small town America is a reflection of its era. Hollywood crusading editors were considered trite by many, although when you come to think of it just how many such films of that ilk can you recall?
In this little sleeper, as in most socially-conscious films of the 50s, facts which are commonplace even today (i.e. numbers rackets, police corruption, and sports betting) are revealed to be an integral part of middle town America. The Florida mob has moved in to take over, and someone rats them out to the editor Jim. Soon all hell breaks loose, with "respectable" members of the business community approaching Jim to lay it off and take it easy. Jim's partner wants to buy him out and get out of the business, because they're losing money and ad revenue. One night, Jim and his photographer Phil (played by Milner) sneak out to get a shot of the mob guys at their wire joint. Later, unsurprisingly, Phil is severely beaten and another friend a drunk is "accidentally" run over at night by a black Cadillac, one of the film's most brutal scenes.
The score by Jerome Moross is hauntingly melodic, then it turns sour, then strident (similar to Dmitri Tiomkin's in many ways), and adds just the right note of despair and panic to the film noir texture of this film. Almost nowhere is this film predictable or corny (except for the now familiar first-person narrative technique so often used in films like this one).
Riveting and near-perfect, "Captive City" deserves to be appreciated.
"The Captive City" is a tense, modest, and scarcely appreciated noir sleeper, starring John Forsythe in his debut and directed with considerable skill and panache by Robert Wise. Supporting cast is primarily NY stage troupe, including Joan Camden, Harold Kennedy, Marjorie Grossland, Victor Sutherland, and the familiar Route 66 Vet, Martin Milner. In 1951, Estes Kefauver opened hearings in Congress into organized crime. This film, about an ambitious and crusading newspaper editor Jim (Forsythe) and his discovery of crime and corruption in small town America is a reflection of its era. Hollywood crusading editors were considered trite by many, although when you come to think of it just how many such films of that ilk can you recall?
In this little sleeper, as in most socially-conscious films of the 50s, facts which are commonplace even today (i.e. numbers rackets, police corruption, and sports betting) are revealed to be an integral part of middle town America. The Florida mob has moved in to take over, and someone rats them out to the editor Jim. Soon all hell breaks loose, with "respectable" members of the business community approaching Jim to lay it off and take it easy. Jim's partner wants to buy him out and get out of the business, because they're losing money and ad revenue. One night, Jim and his photographer Phil (played by Milner) sneak out to get a shot of the mob guys at their wire joint. Later, unsurprisingly, Phil is severely beaten and another friend a drunk is "accidentally" run over at night by a black Cadillac, one of the film's most brutal scenes.
The score by Jerome Moross is hauntingly melodic, then it turns sour, then strident (similar to Dmitri Tiomkin's in many ways), and adds just the right note of despair and panic to the film noir texture of this film. Almost nowhere is this film predictable or corny (except for the now familiar first-person narrative technique so often used in films like this one).
Riveting and near-perfect, "Captive City" deserves to be appreciated.