"THE STREET WHERE CRIME FLOURISHES IS THE STREET THAT EXTENDS RIGHT ACROSS America. IT IS THE STREET WITH NO NAME............"
J.Edgar Hoover.
From the vaults of 20th. Century Fox comes this excellent crime thriller THE STREET WITH NO NAME. Produced for the studio in 1948 by Samuel G.Engel it was directed with great care to detail and atmosphere by William Keighley. Crisply photographed by master cinematographer Joe MacDonald, it was beautifully written for the screen by Harry Kleiner and was filmed by Fox in their customary forties semi-documentary style that they had started producing with great success in 1945 with "The House On 92nd Street".
Richard Widmark is Alec Stiles. The vicious over dressed leader of a gang of hoodlums who are terrorizing the city with their well planned robberies and killings. Determined to outwit and bring them down the FBI, under Inspector Briggs (Lloyd Nolan), trains an undercover agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) to infiltrate the gang to find out just how and from who they are getting their information prior to every job they undertake. After gaining Stiles' confidence and becoming a trusted gang member Cordell's life is put in grave danger when the mysterious informer he seeks exposes him to Stiles. The picture ends with an exciting and action filled finale in a well staged shootout between the gang and FBI agents.
The acting is good throughout. Mark Stevens heads a nicely chosen cast as the undercover agent. Stevens, an actor who had some degree of success was a mildly appealing leading man in the forties and fifties. After many bit parts billed under his real name of Stephen Richards ("Objective Burma"/"Pride Of The Marines") he changed his name and with the exception of "Cry Vengeance" (1954) and "Timetable" (1956) - which he also directed - appeared in his fair share of indifferent movies. THE STREET WITH NO NAME was one of his better and more memorable efforts. Mark Stevens died in 1977. Also good to watch is Lloyd Nolan. Here repeating his role as the FBI's Inspector Briggs from "House On 92nd Street" and there's a nice contribution too from John McIntire as Steven's fellow undercover agent. But there is no doubt the picture belongs to Richard Widmark. This was the actor's second movie after his blistering nominated debut performance the previous year in "Kiss Of Death" Here as Stiles he is just as mean but without the Tommy Udo snigger. Two years later Widmark would give what is arguably his greatest performance when he played the racist young thug in "No Way Out" (1950).
As was usual with Fox during this period for this type of picture there is no music score except for a robust march theme heard over the opening and closing credits. Nevertheless THE STREET WITH NO NAME remains a memorable noir and a classic crime thriller.
In 1955 Fox remade the picture as "House Of Bamboo". This was a most unfortunate decision. Its noir antecedents were utterly lost in the totally unsuitable Cinemascope/colour presentation. Moreover, its daft and questionable decision to relocate the entire story to a Tokyo setting makes one wonder what sort of brainstorm Fox's head of production was going through at the time and did he even see the original. Hmmm!
J.Edgar Hoover.
From the vaults of 20th. Century Fox comes this excellent crime thriller THE STREET WITH NO NAME. Produced for the studio in 1948 by Samuel G.Engel it was directed with great care to detail and atmosphere by William Keighley. Crisply photographed by master cinematographer Joe MacDonald, it was beautifully written for the screen by Harry Kleiner and was filmed by Fox in their customary forties semi-documentary style that they had started producing with great success in 1945 with "The House On 92nd Street".
Richard Widmark is Alec Stiles. The vicious over dressed leader of a gang of hoodlums who are terrorizing the city with their well planned robberies and killings. Determined to outwit and bring them down the FBI, under Inspector Briggs (Lloyd Nolan), trains an undercover agent Gene Cordell (Mark Stevens) to infiltrate the gang to find out just how and from who they are getting their information prior to every job they undertake. After gaining Stiles' confidence and becoming a trusted gang member Cordell's life is put in grave danger when the mysterious informer he seeks exposes him to Stiles. The picture ends with an exciting and action filled finale in a well staged shootout between the gang and FBI agents.
The acting is good throughout. Mark Stevens heads a nicely chosen cast as the undercover agent. Stevens, an actor who had some degree of success was a mildly appealing leading man in the forties and fifties. After many bit parts billed under his real name of Stephen Richards ("Objective Burma"/"Pride Of The Marines") he changed his name and with the exception of "Cry Vengeance" (1954) and "Timetable" (1956) - which he also directed - appeared in his fair share of indifferent movies. THE STREET WITH NO NAME was one of his better and more memorable efforts. Mark Stevens died in 1977. Also good to watch is Lloyd Nolan. Here repeating his role as the FBI's Inspector Briggs from "House On 92nd Street" and there's a nice contribution too from John McIntire as Steven's fellow undercover agent. But there is no doubt the picture belongs to Richard Widmark. This was the actor's second movie after his blistering nominated debut performance the previous year in "Kiss Of Death" Here as Stiles he is just as mean but without the Tommy Udo snigger. Two years later Widmark would give what is arguably his greatest performance when he played the racist young thug in "No Way Out" (1950).
As was usual with Fox during this period for this type of picture there is no music score except for a robust march theme heard over the opening and closing credits. Nevertheless THE STREET WITH NO NAME remains a memorable noir and a classic crime thriller.
In 1955 Fox remade the picture as "House Of Bamboo". This was a most unfortunate decision. Its noir antecedents were utterly lost in the totally unsuitable Cinemascope/colour presentation. Moreover, its daft and questionable decision to relocate the entire story to a Tokyo setting makes one wonder what sort of brainstorm Fox's head of production was going through at the time and did he even see the original. Hmmm!